Santas will be combing their beards, tweaking their little red hats and floating onto the waterfront for the annual ‘Great Santa Kayak’ at the Mount Batten Centre on December 2. They are lucky enough to also have Radio Plymouth and One Plymouth involved as key supporters.
Celebrating its third year, the founding members of the committee – Jamie Yabsley, Tricia Duff and Scott Grenney – created the event as an innovative way to raise money for good causes in the Plymstock area.
Since it began in 2016, the event has been successful in fundraising for a range of causes that are all close-to-home.
In 2016, the money raised was donated to the Stroke Association in aid of a local colleague who had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke, and in the following year it was used to raise awareness and funds for Shekinah, St Luke’s Hospice and Mount Batten Centre Charity.
This year’s worthy causes are Mount Batten Centre Charity and Devon Air Ambulance, as a way of thanking them for their amazing life-saving efforts when one of the Centre team needed help earlier this year.
This year’s event also has a particularly fun programme.
Those involved can enjoy a bacon bap and a tea or coffee on arrival, before changing into their Santa suits and enjoying a paddle on a sit-on-top kayak with a group of qualified instructors.
They are also providing a steaming cup of soup in The Lookout at the Centre to help warm up participants once the experience finishes at 12.30pm. All the specialist watersports equipment is provided by the centre as well as Santa suits to ensure everyone looks the part.
The ‘Great Santa Kayak’ has been incredibly well received in previous years, with all involved having a great time whilst helping such great causes.
There are limited spaces on both single and double kayaks, so it’s important to sign up quickly to avoid disappointment.
To learn more, or to sign up visit www.mount-batten-centre.com/great-santa-kayak-2018.
