The parents of 34 teenagers rescued by lifeboats and a helicopter after becoming trapped by the rising tide on a rocky shoreline in Kent have raised £5,000 for the Dover RNLI in gratitude.
The boys, all 13 and 14 year-olds, were on an outing on Monday organised by the Ahavat Yisrael community centre in Stamford Hill, north London, and walking between St Margaret’s Bay and Dover harbour when they realised they were trapped as darkness fell.
They used the torches on their mobile phones to guide three lifeboats and a helicopter launched during the air and sea rescue. All were recovered and none required hospital treatment.
The community centre has now sent a cheque for £5,000 to the Dover RNLI and fundraising is set to continue, it was reported.
The boys, who were accompanied by two adult community centre staff, had been walking the coastal path, and it is believed attempted to take a shortcut back along a beach strewn with large rocky boulders and in an active cliff fall area.
Rescuers said they were lucky to escape unharmed, and claimed the group must have walked past nine signs warning them not to proceed.
In a letter to the Dover RNLI, reported by the Hackney Gazette, community centre spokesman Shimon Cohen wrote: “Immediately after the incident, the boys’ parents began fundraising in our community in gratitude for your heroism.”
The centre has said a full investigation will be held into what mistakes were made on the day.
An RNLI spokesman said: “We greatly appreciate the donation and pledged fundraising efforts from the Ahavat Yisrael community centre and their community. The RNLI solely relies on fundraising and donations to operate more than 230 lifeboat stations 24/7 across the UK and Ireland.
“It is excellent that they have turned their traumatic experience from Monday night into positive energy to support the RNLI and have learned to ‘respect the water’.”
