Event Support Volunteer (Lifeboat Saturday - Belfast)

Could you spare a few hours on the 10th October 2026 to help at Lifeboat Saturday, an RNLI annual street collection with kindness and community at its heart?

We are looking for volunteers to help us at this Lifeboat Saturday bucket collection to raise money to help save more lives at sea. This is a great opportunity to work as a team, meet new people, and have fun.

Our RNLI hub and meeting point will be next to the Spirit of Belfast Statue, and we will be collecting around Ann Street, Arthur Street, Cornmarket, and Castle Lane.

You can choose which collecting slot suits you:

10am - 12pm

OR

12pm - 2pm

OR

2pm - 4pm

The first ever Lifeboat Saturday was in 1891 and changed the face of fundraising forever. It happened after the worst disaster in RNLI history when, on 10 December 1886, 27 lifeboatmen from Southport and St Anne’s lost their lives while attempting to rescue the crew from the German barque Mexico.

The RNLI launched a public appeal to support the 16 widows, and 50 children left behind. Sir Charles Macara, a local wealthy industrialist and RNLI volunteer, answered the call for help. He and his wife, Lady Marion Macara, decided to organise a collection – Lifeboat Saturday. It was the world’s first recorded charity street collection. More than 30,000 people lined the streets of Manchester and raised over £5,000 together (that’s over £500,000 today).

Today the RNLI continues to save lives at sea, with over 25,000 people aided and 437 lives saved last year, and you can be a part of that.