more for charity ....
We have great fun raising money for several charities and raising awareness for the causes we support. As well as regular raffles at our monthly meetings we get up to a few other things as well. Here are just a few highlights:
2008
May
May started off with a great club night and presentation evening. John Bevan popped along to give a talk on the history of diving in the solent. Around 80 people turned up from 5 of the dive clubs in the area, so it was a great opportunity to meet new divers and make new friends. Not only that but we also raised £200 which we donated to the Historical Diving Society of which John Bevan is the founding chairman.
April
A bit of a small turn out for club night and as a result only £40 raised for our charities.March
March was great for raising money and awareness. A hugely successful Spring Ball which rasied a whopping £400 towards our favourite charities. Then with some really good hangovers, around a dozen or so of us participated in the Sport Relief Mile the following day - but we did it in full diving gear. Some of the gas mixtures were a bit heavy on the oxygen side, but that was good for the hangovers. And the large amount of helium added some amusement to the event. It is difficult to know exactly what we raised as the runners from the club all had seprate on-line sponsorship areas while some had your normal style of paper sponsor forms - but we reckon it was around the £800 whi8ch was fantastic.
February
Loads going on in February. Another club meeting and another £60 raised for charity. Half term saw us once again supporting the local community by providing free try dives for kids at the Pyramids swimming pool. We provided a try dive session for Cowplain school and also supported the university diving club in their marathon underwater swim, by providing all the tanks and air for the event.
January
We gave £100 to support "Bite Back" a shark and marine conservation charity.
The January club meeting was replaced with a presentation by Mike Pitts. The event was attended by around 120 and was a great success. Entrance fee proceeds were around £400 for charity.
2007
December
The Rainbow Centre Christmas party - Donk and Tina stood in for Santa and Chief Elf (who were too busy for some reason) and Rhiannon sprouted fairy wings and gave out some sweets. Before everything started we handed over a big cheque for £1000 and then the children performed a nativity play. Afterwards, Donk and Tina handed out presents to all the children. The day was finished off with a great party and lads of food. All of us here at Triton would like to wish the children and staff at the Rainbow Centre a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
We held a raffle at the Christmas Ball which this year raised just over £600. We have decided to add £200 from money raised at club nights and top this up with another £200 from us and give the total of £1000 to the Rainbow Centre for their Christmas party. We do this every year and it covers the cost of presents. We will be bringing you photos of the event at the end of the month.
October
The main charity raising event was the Great South Run. For some of the members it was the first time they had taken part and it was a great effort. Chris Gambs did extremely well, coming in 168th place in an incredible 66 minutes. Twelve club members ran and they raised over £1000 for charity. Some of the members were running for their own charities but the majority of the money raised went to the Lifeboats and to the Rainbow Centre in Fareham.
August - loads going on 
Monty Halls came to give a presentation and we invited all the dive clubs in the area. Just over 100 people turned up on the night and we raised a whopping £500 for the Scuba Trust charity (as requested by Monty.) It was a great night and a good opportunity to meet with other divers from other clubs - something we hope to do more of in the future.
We also ran Discover Scuba Diving programmes for 2 organizations, Bay House school and Positive Futures. The latter is a charity that is supported by Portsmouth FC and gets youngsters doing things they would not normally have the opportunity to do. Around 30 youngsters took part in the programmes which gave them the opportunity to try scuba diving for the first time. We hope to be working with them more in the future.
We helped out the Fire Service once again for their open day by putting up the pool at the sommerstown station. We raised around £150 for the fire service charity by running try dives for them.
July
Dads and Lads from City Boys School learned all about diving when we teamed upwith them to run some try dives at Springfield pool. The idea was put together by Hellen Cushion, club member and teacher at the school. All the lads and their dads thoroughly enjoyed the experienceJune
Club night and the first barbeque of the year. The raffle raised £100 for charity.May
Another special event for Enham Alamein. 10 E2E learners came from Farnborough to learn about Scuba Diving and have a go. The programmes are designed to show them what diving is all about and exaplin the opportunities that it can offer. Once again it was a great success.
The May club night saw around 60 club members turn out and we raised £94 for charity.
It was time to give away some of the money rasied as a result of raffles, runs and general sponsorship. Taking into account various other donations that we had made recently, such as the Christmas party for the Rainbow Centre we sent cheques to the following:
Rainbow Centre - £1000
Lifeboats - £500
Project AWARE - £500
Rowans Hospice - £1000
We hope you all approve.
March
There was no normal club night in March as we had the Spring Ball instead. As well as being a cracking good night we ran our usual raffle with plenty of great goodies. Top prize on the night was a 3 peice wetsuit donated by Oceanic UK (thanks again for your support down there) and a good friend of the club, David Reed, kindly donated an iPod Nano. Many thanks to everyone in the club and to our sponsors who helped us raise £500 for our charities.
February
Another club night, another raffle and this time it raised £96January
The year started off really well with 86 members turning up for the first meeting. Not only that but the January raffle was slightly different to normal. Prizes were unwanted gifts that people did not want. All the prizes were wrapped so it was pot luck what you got if you won. Funniest prize of the night was a book about age discrimination legislation, but the half drunk bottle of rum also brought a few laughs. In spite of some appaling prizes the raffle raised £186.2006
December
Christmas at the Rainbow Centre - for the second year running we sponsored the Rainbow Centre by donating £600 to fund their Christmas Party and presents. As well, Divemaster candidate Mike Haw (AKA "Donk") and his wife Tina volunteered to help out Santa and his Elf (at what is a very busy time of year for them apparantly) by standing in. Katie looked ravishing as a fairy, complete with wings, fairy outfit and wand. The party was a great success and we look forward to helping out again next Christmas
There was drinking and dancing a plenty for 130 people at the Christmas Ball and we also raised over £1400 for our charities. Many thanks to everyone who bought tickets and a big thanks to Matt from Scubapro who supported an auction at the end of the raffle with a donation of a Scubapro regulator set. Thanks also to Alan from Solent divers for putting the top prize back into the auction and helping raise an additional £140
November
Early in November and we received our copy of the PADI Undersea Journal. There on page 82 was a lovely little piece about all of our efforts and those of the children during water watch week in the summer. The magazine goes to all PADI members around the world so it truly was International recognition for our efforts. Many thanks to all the schools who got involved.
October
There were a quite a few highlights in October.
The Great South Run saw 5 runners from the club running in support of the Lifeboats. Chris Gambs who had been training hard managed to complete the run in a very impressive 68 minutes, I followed in 74 minutes hampered slightly by an inflatable lifeboat which unfortunately only lasted the first 3 miles, Wyndham and Andrea clearly had a bit of a personal race at 1 hr 34 and 1hr 39 respectively and Trina who confessed to not doing as much training as she had hoped came in at 2 hrs 8 (which was brilliant for a first go).
Enham Alamein
We have been working hard recently with an organization called Enham who are a charity that aim to provide opportunities to people with disabilities. As a diving and first aid training organization we knew that we had plenty to offer. The first opportunity was to conduct try dives for 9 youngsters from Enham. The session went down really well and hopefully in the future many of the participants will go on to take more training and gain qualifications in scuba.
Supporting the Mt Mayon Appeal At the beginning of the month we held a raffle at the club night to support a special appeal. Noel Se, who comes from the Philippines and works at the QA Hospital and has been a club member for a long time, wrote to us about Mt Mayon in Legazpi City. This normally dormant volcano erupted, leaving thousands homeless and without a future. The volcano was always thought to be a “mild one” however, lava even now continues to flow down the sides. Noel was trying to raise money in support of the relief effort and wrote to the club to ask for support. So, we thought that at the October club night, all money raised would be donated to this particular cause. On the night we raised £100 and we donated a further £100 from the charity fund making £200 in total.
September
Beach Clean Traditionally September is always the month when we see Beach clean ups going on around the World. This year we once again registered our intention to help clean the beaches with both Project AWARE and the Marine Conservation Society and set about trying to encourage as many people as possible to take part. The News got involved once again through their "We Can Do It" campaign and we also managed to get the BBC interested and they ran a piece on BBC south about clean ups that were being held in Southsea and Swanage. The result was a little disappointing with only about 25 turning up on the day, but it did manage to raise awareness and make the beaches that little bit cleaner for all of us to enjoy.
The monthly club meeting was very busy inspite of many members being away on holidays. Scubapro came to give a talk and the raffle raised £110.
Supporting the Fire Services In the past we have had a great deal of help from the fire services who come along when we need the pool filling in various remote locations (like the middle of Southsea common.) so when they asked us to support their open day by putting in the try dive pool at Southsea Fire Station to raise money for fire service charities we were delighted. So the 9th September so us splashing around again in a good cause. About 40 kids and adults took the plunge in what was a busy but fun packed day.
August
There was no monthly club meeting in August due to the Summer Ball which was held at the Queens Hotel on 5 August. As well as being a fantastic night, we held a big raffle with some fantastic prizes. The top prize was a BCD, worth £375 and donated by Oceanic. This was won by a non diver who auctioned the item off to raise a further £170. In all the raffle raised a whopping £1000. Many thanks to everyone who bought tickets and to our sponsors who donated ssome superb prizes.
July - The club meeting on 6 July raised a fantastic £136 -well done everyone and we all had an excellent night out aswell!
June - On 8 June we went to Waite End Primary School to talk to the children about the problems of the marine environment and what they can do to help. Go to www.waterwatchweek.org for more details
The raffle on the 1 June club night raised £75 for our charities.
May - It was time to write out cheques and this was the first one for the month. £500 towards Project AWARE. Many thanks to Nat West for the big cheques.
- The raffle on the monthly club night raised another £95.
Talk to Wimborne School About the Environment Also in May, we went to Wimborne School to give a presentation about the marine 
environment. Around 300 boys and girls listened as we explained about Project AWARE, the plight of the aquatic world and the sort of things that they could do to get involved and help protect our seas, rivers and lakes. Since visiting the school has started an AWARE club, run by PADI Instructor and teacher Carolyn Butler. The children will be participating in a variety of projects aimed at increasing their awareness, responsibility and education. To see the results of their efforts go to www.waterwatchweek.org
April
- The April club night was another great success; the raffe raised £100 which was donated to NAS who came along and gave us a short presentation about their activities and courses.
London Marathon Dive Centre owner and Course Director, David Jones completed the London marathon. Even though he was beaten by ScoobyDoo, a couple of nuns and Fred Flintstone, he still managed to raise over £600. Many thanks to everyone that donated sponsorship money.
New Awareness Website We launched our special environmental awareness website www.waterwatchweek.org The website includes a range of activities that can be undertaken by children to help preserve the marine environment. It will also provide them with a window to show off what they do.
March - A great club night in the Coast bar and the rafffle raised another £110. Many thanks to everyone who donated prices and bought tickets.
February - The Valentines Ball raffle had a nitrox computer as first prize. Once again club members dug into their pockets and we managed to raise £470.
January - You know how you often get gifts at Christmas time that you don't want. well we decided to raffle them off at the monthly club meeting. Itproved to be a great way to palm off some unwanted items to other people and we managed to raise £91 at the same time which was donated to Project Aware.
2005
December - At the Christmas Ball we managed to raise £779 by running a couple of raffles. Most of the prices were provided by some very generous scuba equipment manufacturers, and the Queens Hotel kindly donated dinner and a night for two at their hotel. The top prize was worth nearly £400. We managed to spend the money by providing all the presents and the food for the Rainbow Centre Christmas party ... we even managed to persuade Santa and one of his helpers (who looked remarkebly like Roz) to pop in and hand out presents a few days early. You can see more photos and buy a DVD of the event by clicking here. We also gave a cheque to the Rowans Hospice for £800 which went towards "wish lists" for some of the patients.
August - With the diving season well underway, it seemd like a good idea to raise a bit of awareness for the marine environment. at the Southsea Show, where we conducted Try dives, we also provided space for the Nautical Archaeology Society and the Blue Reef Aquarium to exhibit, free of charge. The "hands on" marine experience proved to be such a success that we decided to put our try dive pool into the aquarium complex for a couple of weeks, where we conducted trydives free of charge. A great opportunity to raise awareness of diving in general as well as for Project Aware.
June - Club members supported the local aqaurium who were running a diving awareness week. We placed an information stand in the building and divers dressed in full gear. How they managed in the heat I have no idea. The stand was a great addition for the Aquarium and while the emphasis was not about raising money, it did a lot to raise awareness. The summer ball raffle also raised around £300.
May - and it was time to hand over a bit of money. As we had a big open water course on at the time what better place to do it than horsea lake - cheques for £1502 were given to both Rainbow Centre and The Rowans Hospice.
February - was a huge month for fund raising. At the beginning of the month we once again ranour sponsored Divathon. 26 club members swam a mile underwater to raise money. About 100 people turned up to either swim or help out including the students and staff from the Southdowns College who gave up their Saturday afternoon. Over £3000 was raised in total. To read the article that was published in the News click here. Later in the month a few club members stuck on some dive gear and collected outside of the bars in Guildhall. Remarkably they didn't die of hypothermia and they also raised £500.
2004
September - Beach
clean up time and this year we got a helping hand from the "We Can Do It" team at The News. With there help we had about 50 volunteers for the clean up operation along Southsea Beach and we collected a huge amount of rubbish from beaches that were supposedly "clean". The News ran with the campaign and some of the articles can be found by clicking the links below:
20 September - "Shores are Cleaner ...."
17 September - "Join us on the beach and clean up"
3 September - "Join the big beach clean up"
August -
Sponsored Raft Race. A fantastic way to raise money for charity and superb fun. We got hold of a raft only to have it stolen (yes how exacttly do you steal a raft 12 ft long) so it was down to the stores to get the supplies to build another one. Several club members got involved in the event which was wet and messy. The event was organized by The Castle in the Air pub and all the money went towards their sponsored charity, the Kids Centre on this occasion - but hey, we didn't mind.
June - Free try dives for kids. Every half term we provide our services for free by giving youngster the chance to try scuba diving. Over 30 children aged 8 and above took part.
February - We decided to invite members from the Rowans Hosp
ice and the Rainbow Centre to our Valentines Ball. This black tie affair was great fun and attended by over 100 club members. Top prize was a holiday for 2 to Egypt, donated by us, and this was won by Nathalie Viera, one of our French club members. With such great prizes the raffle raised nearly £1000 which coupled with money from previous fund raising meant that we were able to present both charities with cheques for £1000. Also in February we held the first of our Divathons when 26 members swam a mile underwater for charity. The event raised over £4000
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