Charities benefit from Windermere’s lost property

Unclaimed items of lost property left on Windermere Lake Cruises’ vessels have been put to good use after being handed over to local charities in Cumbria.

Every year, despite extensive efforts to re-unite items with owners, hundreds of things go unclaimed after being left on cruise vessels on England’s longest lake.

The latest collection includes a multi-coloured crocheted blanket, 22 pairs of reading glasses, socks, sunglasses and sweaters.

Even social media campaigns have proved unsuccessful in re-uniting people with their lost property.

That’s why Windermere Lake Cruises has now donated several boxes of good quality lost property items to the North West Air Ambulance Charity base in Kendal.

“Anything lost and found on our vessels is logged, dated and stored for three months before being packed up and donated to charity,” says Jennifer Cormack, Sales and Marketing Director for Windermere Lake Cruises.

“It’s nice to know that lost property is going to a good home rather than just being thrown away. The NWAA receives an average of three callouts a day and has saved countless lives in our area. We hope this small contribution helps such a valuable local charity.”

Windermere Lake Cruises also donated the 22 pairs of reading glasses to the charity “Peep” which works alongside their partner Lion’s Club to recycle or upcycle, restore or resell unwanted spectacles.

After every cruise on England’s longest lake, passengers are reminded to check they have all their possessions with them before leaving the vessel. But if any items are left behind staff at Windermere Lake Cruises work hard to re-unite visitors with their belongings.

“We recently returned a lost wallet and documents to their owner after locating him through Facebook,” says Jennifer Cormack. “We know how inconvenient it can be to lose keys, phones and wallets and that’s why we do our best to track their owners. But sometimes it proves impossible. That’s when we seek to support a good cause rather than throwing items away.”

Have you lost something on board on our boats?

• Please contact us as soon as you realise you have left something on board and we can radio our crew to help retrieve it and take the item to another pier
• At the end of the working day, all our vessels are thoroughly cleaned and lost items recorded and can be held safely for a few weeks - just call us to identify anything you feel you may have lost.