A NATIONAL Coastwatch Institution (NCI) station at Porthdinllaen collected more than £500 in donations at its fundraiser event on Saturday (August 28).

The station is one of 57 which make up the NCI, a voluntary charity dedicated to establishing and operating coastal safety lookouts at strategic locations around the UK coastline, and Saturday’s fundraiser also coincided with National Coastwatch Day.

Porthdinllaen watchkeepers raised funds at Spar stores in Nefyn, Llanbedrog and Abersoch, as well as the Abersoch Londis shop, and fundraising manager Jenny Wilson was grateful for the amount of generosity shown to the charity.

Jenny, who moved between the different shops throughout the day, said: “We usually only have watchkeepers located in Abersoch, but we decided to venture further afield this year.

“We had to take more special restrictions this year because of COVID, and a special thing we did this year was introduce contactless card payment in addition to the coin buckets. That, I think, has proved very successful in the amount of money we’ve raised.

“We haven’t yet been able to total the full amount we raised on Saturday but the amount so far is about £540 with four buckets to still count up, so I’m confident that we had a good day.

“The weather really helped; there were loads of people about. Historically, we’ve found everybody very generous in giving to the NCI, even those who don’t really know what it’s all about. We’re well on track for it to be a very good year, so I’m very hopeful.”

Donations have been harder to come by for the station since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which put paid to last year’s collections planned for Good Friday, Easter Sunday and the August bank holiday.

Money raised will go towards helping train watchkeepers, of which there are currently 20 at Porthdinllaen, as well as ensuring the station is stocked with the latest equipment needed to run it effectively.

And with more donations still yet to be counted, Jenny said they have already exceeded her initial rough target for the day.

She added: “Previously, we’d done two consecutive days and raised about £1,100, so in my mind, I’d have been happy to raise anything over £500 for the entire day.

“The donations will be very well received by the NCI at Porthdinllaen. We rely totally on public donations; we don’t receive any funding from central government. The NCI is entirely funded voluntarily.

“I’m confident that we’ve had a very good collection day and would like to thank all the holidaymakers and residents last Saturday. Without them, we’d be struggling for funds.”

To find out more about NCI Porthdinllaen, visit: www.nci.org.uk/porthdinllaen.