Gala Week 2011 success
Gala Week in Kirkhill has always been something of an event. The whole community getting behind a weeklong programme of events and activities culminating in Gala Day. This year though was something special. Buoyed up by the success of the last year the Gala Committee were determined to do better, and they did!
The week was a nonstop whirl of activity from the family ceilidh which kicked off the week to the Gala Dance at the end. It’s difficult to single out any particular event as they were all great fun and catered for a range of ages and interests. But new for this year and a huge success was the Fashion Show held at Achnagairn House. The Antiques Roadshow was also a great success with some people leaving with their treasures clutched a little tighter. It also wouldn’t be gala week without the Bingo ably managed as ever by Kirkhill Bowlers and the Pet Parade this year enhanced by the dog agility course.
After some iffy weather in the week Gala Day itself stayed fine and we had a great turnout. There was so much going on it was difficult to get round it all and there was some great music too.
As well as being a great community get together and social occasion for all the week was also a financial success. The amazing amount of £9300 was collected – a huge amount for a small community and it just goes to show what great community spirit we have. And huge, huge thanks to the hard working gala committee (and all their friends and relatives that they dragged along to help), to the many other volunteers and to everyone that came along to support the events.
The funds will go towards the upkeep and improvement of Kirkhill Community Centre and sports facilities for the benefit of the whole community. And we’ll need all that and more as we progress our plans to renovate and extend the hall.
Hall renovation project
Where are we now with our hall renovation plans? Well, we’ve got feedback from the community and users on what they think are the most important issues. Top of the list were improvements to the kitchen, toilets and changing rooms and increased storage and more choice of space to rent. We’ve taken this information and, working with local architect Erik Lundberg, have come up with some proposals for improvement. Ideally we’d like to extend the hall to provide toilets and a meeting room while internally renovating to provide a bigger kitchen, improved changing and a bigger vestibule. But this won’t come cheap and estimates at the moment are around £250,000. Our next step is to work on our feasibility study and business plan and identify funders that can help us with the project. It won’t happen quickly but we’ll keep you informed about how the project is progressing. In the meantime if you got any bright ideas about how to raise more money let us know!
If you’d like to help with this important community project get in touch with Alasdair Morrison on 831185. We particularly need people with building, project management , administration or financial skills.
Kirkhill MUGA
One year on and the multi use games area (MUGA) is being well used and the tennis membership has been successful. To help young people benefit from the facility we’re please to offer limited after-school sessions. These are free sessions for young people on Thursdays from 4pm to 6pm from now until the October holidays. The court will be opened and closed by an adult but the activities will be unsupervised. This is for a trial period and any abuse of equipment or unacceptable behaviour may result in the sessions being stopped.
AGM
Kirkhill District Amenities Association AGM will be held on Thursday 10th November at 7.30 in the Community Centre. This will be a great opportunity to hear about our renovation plans and the gala success and have a cup of tea and a chat. We promise we won’t twist any arms to come on the committee (…but if you are interested call Ken MacDonald on 831429).