Rachel makes a date to do LIVES calendar again

A first fundraising calendar for Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance was so popular that the person who came up with the idea has made a date to do it all again.

The venture by Surfleet resident Rachel Rodgers raised £4,747 for the charity, which needs £2.1m a year.

Rachel set up Twitter account @LincsSkies last year, enabling photographers to share their favourite images of the county’s big skies.
In September, she asked the account’s followers to submit photos to be considered for a calendar. Out of more than 60 entries, 12 winning photos were chosen by a judging panel which included Ambucopter deputy chief executive officer Sally Crawford and The Voice news editor Nigel Chapman.

Rachel, who is marketing manager for Spalding firm Elsoms Seeds, said: “Local companies were extremely generous. Elsoms Seeds offered to be the main sponsor, covering the cost of the first print run and within a week of asking for sponsors, every month had been sponsored.
“Ruddocks Print and Design came on board to print the calendar for us. This meant that most of the takings from the calendars could be donated straight to the Ambucopter. The generosity of people has completely blown me away while doing this project.”

Sally said the charity was “extremely grateful” to Rachel and to everyone who had bought the calendar.
She added: “The amount raised exceeded our expectations.”

Rachel is planning to create another Lincs Skies calendar for 2018.