To celebrate reaching 1000 followers on twitter, Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited has donated £1,000 Wick’s RNLI station this week.
The construction of Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, with its 84 turbines currently being installed off the Caithness coast, has caught the attention of more than 1,000 people, groups and organisations who are currently following the projects progress as lead developer SSE build Beatrice.
But the Beatrice association with the RNLI doesn’t end with the donation.
Richard Garton, Duty Marine Coordinator at the Wick Operation Centre, has a long history of volunteering with the RNLI as a lifeboat crew member in his home town of Weymouth on the south coast of England. So when he landed his current role in Wick in October 2017 he also decided to become a volunteer with the Wick RNLI crew.
Richard said: “I’m delighted to see this donation handed to the station here in Wick. I’ve been a long-time volunteer of the RNLI, about 20 years, so I couldn’t be happier to see the Beatrice project making this donation which will help Wick provide their vital service to those who need help in time of trouble. Thank you to the 1,000 followers for their contribution to this milestone!”
Ian ‘Corrie’ Cormack, coxswain at Wick RNLI station, said: “Donations like this are invaluable in supporting the work we do here at Wick and across the wider RNLI. The Wick RNLI station is manned by volunteers so the timing of this donation is even more important as we have two or three new people joining the crew so we can use the money to help with their kit costs and training. I might even start using Twitter now to see what I’m missing!”
Steve Wilson, Beatrice’s Project Manager, said: “We’re very proud of our ground-breaking project and it’s amazing to have so many people across the local community, country and twitter interested in the building Beatrice story.
“We’ve had a lot of big milestones along the way, with more to come, so we couldn’t let this Twitter milestone pass without marking it appropriately. Supporting our harbour neighbours, and the safety critical search and rescue service they provide to the local community, felt the right thing to do.
“I’d also like to thank our own Richard for his contribution and to wish the new crew volunteers a safe and successful time in their new roles.”
Offshore construction of the Beatrice project is progressing well with 13 turbines installed while onshore the £15m investment in the new Operations and Maintenance base at Wick harbour is continuing at a pace with a large number of project support vessels also operating from the harbour.
