We're stripping off for charity
8th October 2007
Anything the Calendar Girls can do,
staff and customers at a city pub can do better - and that includes the
62-year-old landlady.
Four staff and 16 customers at the Gordon pub, Gordon Avenue, Thorpe St Andrew,
bared all, or nearly all, for a naked calendar in aid of the Hemsby Lifeboat -
an independent, volunteer-run service.
One hundred and
fifty of the saucy calendars have been produced, and at £10 are flying off the
shelves, much to the delight of pub staff and the lifeboat crew who are not part
of the RNLI and get no outside funding.
Landlady Carolyn Slater, 62, who had the original idea for the calendar and
posed in two of the shots, said: “We wanted to have men and women in the
calendar so our audience would not be restricted.
“I came up with the idea, firstly, of course, from the real Calendar Girls, and
then because we have so many good-looking men and women who come into the pub.
“But when we came round to doing it, so many called off that we had to get
myself and three of the bar staff here to do it.
“The shot of me in my underwear was taken in the pub's smoking shelter and then
I'm showing off my legs in another shot holding a jug.
“Some of the shots are naked and some look as if they're naked. They were all
taken in the pub, including the cellar, in the lounge, near the jukebox, behind
the bar, in the garden, on the pool table, and by the fireplace.”
She hopes the calendars, which feature bar staff Trisha Hankins, Denise Walker
and Heidi Haylett, will raise £1500 for Hemsby Lifeboat.
She added: “I did not know that the Hemsby Lifeboat was not part of the RNLI and
that it did not receive any funding, so I picked it.
“None of us had ever done anything like the calendar, but we enjoyed it when it
came to it. You just get into the spirit of it. I was not really nervous, apart
from looking like an idiot in the shots.
“I think in the end they turned out quite flattering, although I would have
liked to have tweaked a few of them.”
The photographs were taken by Dave Birchenall, who is a member of the pub darts
team. Costumes were donated by Costume World, of Roundtree Close, Norwich.
Hemsby Lifeboat coxon Gerard Roadley-Battin, 51, who lives in Constitution Hill,
Norwich, said: “I'm always stunned by the generosity of people and businesses.
It's unbelievable, especially this one, became it came out of the blue.
“We are one of only about 60 independent lifeboats in the country and are not
part of the RNLI. We're run by non-paid volunteers and we have to do our own
fundraising, so every bit helps.”
For more information about the lifeboat or to help, visit the website
www.hemsbyinshorerescue.org
To snap up one of the calendars visit the pub in Gordon Avenue.
source:
Norwich Evening News