READING SUPPORT GROUP

Supporting the Medway Queen's cause

BRIGHTON MODEL WORLD 2010
Brighton Model World has become a regular February booking for Reading Group and the pictures show our stand ready for opening of the 2010 show. Although difficult logistically, due to its distance from "base", it is a large well attended event that allows us to get our mesage across to literally thousands of people. This year our sales and information stand was supplemented by a display of 1/1200 ship models

The Reading Support Group is based in the Thames Valley and provides support in the form of event attendances and occasional promotional schemes. The aims of the group are to publicise the society and restoration project and to raise money towards the cost of that restoration. The group is informally organised and membership of the MQPS is not a requirement although most of those involved are society members. We do also rely heavily on help from member's families and friends.

The group was started in 1997 as a result of a committee initiative to persuade a number of members to raise £1000 each towards the restoration of Medway Queen. The £1000 target was passed within a year and we saw no reason to stop and so the group carried on attending events and raising money. By 2003 the annual donation to the society had reached £3000 and in 2007 a total of £5000 was sent in.  The group buys it's own sales stock direct from a number of wholesale suppliers and pays all profits over to the society. In addition Medway Queen related items are sold on behalf of the society's "official" sales team.

A variety of events are now attended by the group; amounting to some 30 event-days per year.  These range from relatively small "village hall" sized events to others with a "national" significance. The majority of events have a boat or model boat/railway theme but the group are aware of the need to reach as wide an audience as possible so other events are also included. Details of our forthcoming bookins will be found on the events page. In terms of "society profile" the most effective events are the larger ones and to this end the group took part in the 2005 Festival of the Sea and is a regular exhibitor at the London Festival of Model Railways at Alexandra Palace and the Thames Traditional Boat Rally at Henley. We have also taken on an annual visit to the Isle of Wight, where the ship was a well known nightclub, to attend a different event there each year, keeping the islanders informed of our progress. In many cases the promotional stand is accompanied by model exhibits of one sort or another as part of a "package" for exhibition organisers.

In addition to events the group are responsible for the "Lighthouse Appeal"  and the model railway "Wagon Project". The former is a mainly publicity-oriented scheme where various external organisations sell miniature lighthouses and boats on the society's behalf helping to keep our name in the spotlight. The wagons are fund-raising oriented but also assist with publicity by their presence on model railways throughout the world and by the specialist magazine coverage that results. Most of the wagons are special edition vehicles by Dapol, exclusive to the society, and available in both 00 and N gauges. Both schemes have raised thousands of pounds for the restoration fund and continue to do so.  Since 2004 the group have organised a model show  jointly with Kew Bridge Steam Museum. The event again helps to widen our audience and forge links with an organisation involved in preserving another aspect of our industrial heritage.

For more details of Reading Support Group - especially if you would like to help or if you organise an event that might interest us - please contact Richard Halton at mq.reading@ntlworld.com.