RNLI shop volunteers joined Margaret Eaglesham, Souvenir Secretary to celebrate winning the South West Retail Supporters Award 2012. The certificate was presented at a regional ceremony at the charity’s headquarters at Poole on 22 June.

Giving the award is crew member, Roger Jackson who was guest speaker and award presenter at the ceremony this year in honour of his recent bronze medal for Gallantry.

Margaret Eaglesham said that the volunteers were very pleased to receive such an award. The volunteers were praised for all their hard work and dedication in bringing the shop up from the old inshore lifeboat station, (now occupied by RNLI lifeguards) to the present site and turning it into such a welcoming and financial success.

Julie Bawden, RNLI Retail Adviser for the South West said of the team of volunteers;

‘Exmouth shop team lead by Margaret Eaglesham, the souvenir secretary, have embraced the massive change of relocation with a new station/shop and adjusted as a team to the higher demand on their time and resource.

The new location meant dealing with increased customer footfall into the shop, great for the RNLI but meant a massive increase in work load for the volunteers in ordering and stock replenishment to keep up with demand. The team is very work organised and the shop is efficiently run.

Their turnover went from 55k to 76k in the 2010 so all volunteers had to pull together as a team and adjust their efforts to keep everything running smoothly.’