Fri 7th Aug 2015

July was a combination of rest & very hard work. While the Irish Scouts had a great time on their self-catering break Iain & Anne were on holiday and Michal & Lucas our summer volunteers arrived from Poland. Immediately after that we opened for summer B&B. We’ve had a variety of guests from many countries and have had a few chances to practice our foreign languages, with quite a few guests from France & even a family from Brazil. The weather hasn’t been very welcoming, but it’s surprising how many people from hot countries like the cool & the green. We’ve also had folk in the flat and the chalet. It’s good to see the chalet come into its own as an accessible apartment and as accessible B&B. 

A recent guest commented," Our room was the best disabled room ever - you wouldn't get that even in a top hotel and the colours are gorgeous."

A couple of weeks ago we had a Free Church girls’ camp, again self-catering, so our staff  had some time off & a chance to be refreshed & ready for the next lot of B&B guests. The girls had great fun visiting the Highland Wildlife Park & Landmark amongst other things & it was lovely to hear them singing as they did their chores first thing.

Pitlochry Arts & Crafts sale is on again  in the dining room and 20% of sales go to local charities. This is a great place to do some very early Christmas shopping and a good rainy day activity! Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm Sundays 2 to 6pm, on till 15 August in the dining room.

A big Thank You to everyone who gave and helped with our Thrift shop. We raised over £700 and then a further £800 arrived from the Fargher Noble trust fund. Then we got news we had been awarded £6,000 from the Rank Foundation and another £500 came in anonymously. All this will help towards the new accessible conference room we hope to build this year.

We’d like to create a new conference room downstairs by extending & dividing our current dining room with a movable soundproof partition to create 2 large rooms, each seating 60, or when the partition is opened one enormous room, ideal for very large conferences & ceilidhs. The extension will have built in AV to bring our conference facilities into the 21^st century and a loop system for the deaf which in combination with it being a ground floor room will make it as accessible as possible for all abilities. Having a completely accessible conference room will be a boon both to our residential and our community groups and we hope having up to date AV will also help us to generate more income through day conferences, making us more sustainable & enabling us to be there for those in need.

Currently we have raised £81,000 towards this project through grant funding & community fundraising. We still need a minimum of £29,000 and as well as waiting for news about a grant request for £20K we hope to raise the remainder through crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is where we reach out to people through the internet using social media like facebook, twitter etc. to publicise what we’re trying to raise money for & ask for donations. We will also be running local events to help us reach our total e.g. the Thrift shop here in July. Could you put on an event where you live to help us raise those last few thousands? We’ve a whole list of ideas if you need some inspiration…

Our big news is that we have at last recruited a social media intern to help with our crowdfunding campaign too. Thanks for your prayers. We had 7 applications and 2 people came for interview, but Michal impressed us with his creativity & video making skills & his understanding of how to get people engaged. Thanks to Michal we're now on Pinterest, Youtube and Instagram as well as Facebook and Twitter, making the Centre much more visible online.

To keep up to date with all the developments in the conference room story you can sign up to receive this blog direct to your email using mailchimp. Just click below to take you to the sign up page.

 

   Fri 26th June 2015

Thank you for all your support. The Open Days were a great success. Over 60 people came for the Open Day on the 6^th July where we were celebrating our new accessible accommodation. Deputy First Minister John Swinney  made a really encouraging speech:

He said, “The key ingredients to success are absolute tenacity & determination, which Iain & Anne have shown. The Atholl Centre is not just fulfilling its potential in its locality but reaching out to people from other localities, surprise guests & to people in need, which is at the core of the Christian mission, and what this Centre does is make sure that whatever happens to us in our lives, we’re all able to come through the doors here & fulfil our capabilities, both for individual & collective benefit, which is something profoundly important.”                             

He came with his disabled wife Elizabeth & their young son. Local Councillor Kate Howie commented ““It was truly a lovely afternoon & felt like having your extended family round.”

We did get a Centre video done in the end, just in time for the Open Day & left it running on loop in the TV room for people to take in on their tours of the building, while Fiona Johnstone from PKAVS encouraged people to fill in community surveys. Thanks to Peter from the Media Trust  who answered our last minute pleas for help with editing with great grace & skilfully selected 5 minutes worth from an extensive file of material. 

On the 7^th we had our Eden Project Big Lunch. Although after a wild & wet week the sun had actually deigned to shine, our gazebos had been totally destroyed by high winds overnight, so we ate inside and then visited the garden. The brilliant thing about Bring & Share is that everybody brings what they can and you end up with a feast. Mildred commented “ I really enjoyed a meal I didn't have to cook" and June said “ I had a lovely time “ Leila who runs Herbal workshops here gave us some new plants from her garden and Alastair showed off the new space which he & David C. & Timo have worked so hard to complete. It’s now ready for use folks!

Clara, our French Intern, who has been with us for 6 weeks left today.  “I am really glad to have met people too generous, kind & funny like you” she wrote in her thank you letter. “ I hope for you the sun will come in Scotland” A big thank you to Rosetta for offering her a bedroom with a cat & to the Stewarts for making her part of their family during her stay. Michael from Poland is back this summer and he’s bringing his friend Lucas to work here too (arriving next week) so we’re all set for summer B&B which starts just after the Irish Scouts  leave on the 6th July. Last year we had guests from over 30 different countries.

We continue to welcome day groups and community groups throughout the summer. Please pray as they offer support to vulnerable members of our community.

Being part of the Pitlochry Art Walk has increased the number of visitors to the Rotary Young Artist display and Arbroath Town Mission Lunch club enjoyed the colourful & imaginative display during their stay too.

The Community Portable Loop which we've been asked to buy and look after so it can be lent out finally arrived. It's been a bit of a saga as the first one we sent away for turned out to have no loudspeakers, so if folk were in a public meeting it still wouldn't be much use as lots of people still would have difficulty hearing, so we sent away for a different one. This one is designed for small conference rooms so it does have a mike & speakers as well as a loop. Now we have to work out how best to lend it out as it's quite complicated to set up and didn't come with a carry case.

We’re still working on securing a Social Media Intern for the summer to help us with a crowdfunding campaign to hopefully complete the funding for the new accessible conference room we’d like to build downstairs. We held one set of interviews but the stand out candidate had to decline due to last minute family reasons so we're holding another set  in a couple of weeks. Please pray we get the right person.

We’re also running a pop–up charity shop to help us continue to upgrade the Centre for disabled people with this new room. This is from the 11^th -17^th July (Excluding Sunday 12^th). As usual we welcome donations of bric–a-brac, toys, books etc and invite you to come & see if there’s anything you’d like to buy.

Our next newsletter is just coming out. Please pick up a copy at reception or coming soon on our website.

Friday 22nd May 2015

Preparations for the Open Day (Sat 6^th June) have been intense. We’re trying to put a short video together to be shown on the day so please pray it turns out all right. The open day is to officially open our new accessible facilities completed this year (to be opened by our local MSP and Deputy First Minister, John Swinney), and to thank you for your generosity and give you a chance to be nosey and take a look for yourselves. As it starts with a buffet lunch please get your name on the list if you’re coming so we have numbers for the lunch. The BU retired ministers had a sneaky peek when they came for their annual day trip & we were so pleased when  Rev Watson Moyes, the Centre's founder, saw our improvements for the first time & thought they were wonderful.

We’re also having a Big Lunch (Eden Project scheme) on Sun 7^th June to launch the community garden. You’re very welcome at either or both events for this big celebration of what God has done & is doing through us, but do let us know if you’re coming. Any volunteers to bring food to share at the garden lunch?

Alastair’s been working hard in the garden & we’ve been asking volunteers to help to get the work done. There’s still work to do, so please let us know if you can help. If you have plants to donate from your own garden please tell us too. This way we make our budget go further and you share in making the community garden. Eric nominated us for the Asda bags community scheme and we’ve been shortlisted, so please vote for us at the Perth store (every customer can get a green token in store to put in the box & then they’re all weighed to find the winner).

Anne has been busy publicising the Centre at stalls in Perth supporting Self Directed Support – at the end of April, end of May & coming up in mid June, so this is helping us become more widely known to new groups and this month we had another minority ethnic disabled folks & carers (MECOPP) group in for a short break and they’re really impressed. Looks like they’ll be regulars in the future, and as they’re an umbrella group this could mean quite a few more midweek groups each year which is brilliant news. Another new disabled group -  international athletes - is due later this year, but their leaders arrive today to check the Centre out & hopefully give their approval. 

Children with heart disorders were also here this month for their annual break. Check out their photos on our facebook. They had great fun in spite of the rain :) Another faithful group the See Hear conference for the deaf also enjoyed their weekend & it was sunny that week! Etape was here too. They're a regular feature now. The motor marshalls stay here so they can be up first thing on Sunday morning to make sure the course is still safe and to guide the cyclists & help out if there are problems, the course management and safety HQ is upstairs in the conference room and the dining room is full of tables for sports massage. Again it was raining but thankfully not as heavily as the forecast had predicted so the race went ahead without major problems, although the cyclists had to watch their speed on the wet roads. One of the motor marshals commented " You're everything we need". Nice to be appreciated:) Pitlochry Baptist, the church next to us, which is right at the start/finish line opened their doors to Etape participants & bystanders with free cake & hot drinks during the event, which was much appreciated in the cold & the wet. Great job PBC!

Wilma is now full time looking after the office, housekeeping & being deputy for Iain when he's not around, so you'll see a lot more of her. Iain & Wilma are both learning how to work SAGE accountancy programme as we update our systems and Iain & Anne have been learning about reporting on social media. We've been awarded funding for a social media internship from Santander for 3 months. This is to help us set up a crowdfunding campaign as we try to complete the fundraising for the new conference room. If you or someone you know would be interested please get in touch. Clara arrived last Monday from Limoges in France as our new foreign intern. She'll be here for 6 weeks to improve her English & learn about managing a small business.

  

The Atholl Centre is taking part in the Pitlochry Art Walk Festival (June 20th -28th). The Centre will be one of numerous places in town with art exhibitions. We’ll also have an artist in residence, Maryann Ryves, who’ll be exhibiting landscapes done in oil at the Centre reception. Why not come & look round to admire the Rotary junior Young Artist of the Year exhibition here (starts 21st June) and give your support.

24th April 2015

We’re having an Open Day on Saturday 6th June at 1 pm here at the Atholl Centre. Why? To officially open our new accessible facilities completed this year (to be opened by our local MSP and Deputy First Minister, John Swinney), and to thank you for your generosity and give you a chance to be nosey and take a look for yourselves. We’ll start with a buffet lunch, then a couple of speeches and a chance to take the tour. Preparations are in full swing and already several people have signed up to come. If you want to come please get your name on the list so we have numbers for the lunch.

As I mentioned last month we’re also having a Big Lunch (Eden Project scheme) on Sun 7^th June to launch the community garden where we hope to be eating some of our own produce! You’re very welcome at either or both events for this big celebration of what God has done & is doing through us, but do let us know if you’re coming. Any volunteers to bring food to share at the garden lunch?

We had the last soup lunch of the season today & Fiona Johnstone was busy interviewing people with her i-pad. We’re making a video for the open day to showcase all the community groups who meet here, so if you’d like to take part let us know.

In April we welcomed 3 brand new residential groups: A group of Iranian asylum seeker families came with the Tron church. This was a group which grew arms & legs. We started off thinking there would be 10 and ended up with 52, 42 of whom slept at the Centre! As well as bible study they had great fun playing badminton & football in the amazing sunshine. Persona counselling group spent the week here and kept us on our toes and we also had MECOPP disabled folk & their carers from the Travelling community as a mid-week group. They not only loved our new accessible en-suites, but really enjoyed that their folk in wheelchairs could be equally involved in every activity because of our inclusive space. That week the Centre was full of music, laughter and creativity led mostly by Pitlochry specialists.

The thrift shop to raise money for the new meeting room with AV & loop went disappointingly slowly this month, but praise God we were awarded £30,000 towards it from the Community Innovation Fund. Only £35K to go! Have you tried easyfundraising? Do pick up a leaflet from us next time you’re in to find out how you can raise money for the Atholl Centre at no cost to yourself when you shop on-line.

The garden continues to develop and we’ve now started to buy plants. However if you have colourful or scented shrubs, herbs and ground cover plants you could donate from your own garden please get in touch. This way we make our budget go further and you share in making the community garden. 

                                      24th March 2015

The great news is the garden’s started and they’re even here in the snow today (White in Moulin but no snow on the ground down the street here). We’re looking forward to seeing the finished article. 4 volunteers from Scottish & Southern Electricity are using their Help in the Community day to give us a hand in April and we’re applying to Dobbies in the Community as well. Liz enjoyed her Trellis conference & is now doing a risk assessment for us.

March has been a busy month residentially with groups every weekend and the Baptist Ministers Continuing Ministry during the week too. They all had successful conferences with us and seemed very impressed with our new rooms as well.

Anne went to a workshop on creative breaks last week to find out how we can help more disabled people & their carers come for a holiday here and this week we’re exhibiting in Perth at a Self Directed Support showcase. Self Directed Support is where disabled and elderly folks who need support are given control of their own Social Work budget so they can choose where they get their help from, including respite breaks.

Last month Comic Relief celebrated huge fundraising success on Red Nose Day and we’re planning a big celebration of our own to thank God for the money He has given the Atholl Centre through you and others. We’re meeting this week to plan our Open Day on the 6^th June  (John Swinney our local MSP is already booked to come) and have signed up to join the Eden Project’s Big Lunch on Sun 7^th to open the Community Garden too. Please put these dates in your diary & join us for this big celebration of what God has done & is doing through us.

Meanwhile we continue to raise funds so we can get on with phase 3 – making a new accessible conference room by extending & dividing the dining room. Please remember our Thrift shop on from the 11^th – 16^th April (11-4, except Sunday) and if anyone is interested in joining in with Etape Caledonia to raise money for the Centre, do let us know. It’s only 5 weeks away!

   Tues 24th Feb 2015

We’ve just said goodbye to a huge youth group from the Church of the Nazarene. Having made it a regional weekend away rather than a local, they ended up with over 70 youngsters at the last minute. They’d already booked the youth hostel, but needed more room. Atholl Centre to the rescue. Fortunately we had room from Sat night, the deacons retreat from Central, Dundee,  being only a 24 hour event, so not only could we provide beds for the boys (girls at the Youth hostel), but they were able to eat here all together and have their teaching sessions here and in the church. So they went sledging all day Saturday & turned up wet but high for their meal & evening session (A photo of the pile of sledges is on our Facebook page. Do take a peek to keep up with our news). This was the third youth group to stay this month and we had Baptist ministers and folks in the flat too so it’s been a busy month.

Our ground floor bedrooms are now finished (bar snagging) and are looking good. It was a huge rush at the last minute with several trades all working at the same time. Mistakes were bound to happen - like the shower parts going in the skip :& having to be rescued by eagle eyed David our project supervisor & the carpet layers trying to lay carpet when there was still wet paint on the skirting boards, but they were finished for when we needed them, so God answered our prayers. Thanks for praying. The asbestos removal went smoothly and some things which we feared were dangerous asbestos turned out to be ok and didn't need to be removed, which saved us some money as we didn't have to replace whole walls, just pipe boxes in the end. There was also a bit of a saga with the double glazing as we're in a listed area, but we were allowed to put in high quality PVCu double glazing in the end, so that was another answer to prayer. You’re welcome to come for a tour to see what’s been achieved. God has really blessed us.

 For fundraising we’re now focusing on the new conference room, which, being accessible and having a loop will be a great help to our community groups as well as allowing us to generate extra income to ensure our sustainability. During the week we had our first ever auction. Thanks to everyone who donated items. A disappointing 10 people turned up and we were worried it would be a flop, but God blessed us with a total of £370 from commissions and sales on the day. One person commissioned a painting and just as we were wondering how to get it to her in Dundee she discovered one of her friends would be at the Central Deacons retreat, so it all worked out perfectly. There’s still quite a number of objects left over so we plan to try Ebay. We’re also planning our usual Thrift shop for April so keep an eye out for posters. The new room is going to cost over 100K so please keep on praying.

People have responded really well to the concept of a community garden here and are full of ideas as to how we could use it to bring people together and promote healthy living. However the actual development is coming along more slowly than we would like, so we’re still at the planning stage but a new volunteer, Liz, is going to be attending a Trellis (therapeutic gardening network) conference in March in Perth on our behalf to learn how to help people use it effectively. Please pray for real progress in March as we have a funding deadline at the end of the month. We've also got more funding requests in for this project, so please pray that we have the amount we need to complete the garden, including the sensory area.

We'll be open for B&B in the first 2 weeks of April (5th - 16th), so do get in touch if you fancy an Easter break in Pitlochry.

 Mon 2nd Feb 2015

 Happy New Year! And this is February too - are you allowed to still say it ? So here's what's been happening since I last wrote...

Snow & high winds  in January meant a few community groups had to cancel. We also were asked to be on stand-by as an emergency Centre, but in the event even though there were people stuck at the snow gates, due to lack of communication we weren’t used that night. However we were thanked for being available and since then many more local groups have been checking they can use us in an emergency as well, including the local old folks home. 

Community Groups are back in full swing now.  Eve is multi-tasking as before with adult literacy & English as a Foreign Language, WA lunch is back to high numbers and, as well as the other regulars, a new support group for mental health started up, so the calendar is filling up.

Although the chalet & the apartment have been open for use, with the refurbishment we thought we’d not really have any residential guests in January after being as full as possible with folk celebrating the New Year (with even a wee family ceilidh in the dining room). However local friend Dee booked her family in for her son's funeral and she ended up staying too so they could see as much of each other as possible . Their stay was further extended by the weather, so Dee had her family round her for a good long time and we were glad we could support her at this sad time. We’ve also been able to help a couple from another church with accommodation on their way to another funeral, so it’s good to see how God is using us to support others in difficult times.

The asbestos removal folk came as planned and declared the area clean and so the builders are back and working as fast as they can. It will be finished behind schedule, but with so many groups coming this month, please pray it will be no more than a week late.i.e. that they'll finish by the end of this week. - so far it looks possible! Meanwhile our first residential training group of the year has arrived, fitting into the upstairs bedrooms the flat and the chalet. First comment of the day," I'm in the same room as before, but there's a much better lavvy. You're no moving me." As this is a minister's conference the leader replied, "I thought they were on the road to sanctification" to which someone else quipped - "Well we're going in the right direction - cleanliness is next to Godliness"

As for the garden – it’s been good to hear ideas & promises of support from quite a few folk. We’re getting help from a garden designer from Trellis (therapeutic gardening network), so it’s looking promising and had our first planning meeting a couple of weeks ago. Do ask if you’d like to be involved.

Please pray too for the Trustees meeting tomorrow as they discuss the nest stage of developments - timings and strategies for the new accessible conference room. 

We’re having an auction on Wed 18th Feb at 2pm (viewing Tues 17^th 2-6pm) to continue to raise funds for the dining room to be extended, giving us a ground floor conference room with AV and loop. This is a departure from our usual thrift shop as we're focusing on quality items and hoping for generous offers. If you have anything you wish to donate for the auction we’ll take goods from the Monday. We’re pleased to announce we received another £5,000 towards the new conference room in January, but we still have a fair way to go. Do come along and help us to create a space which should prove really useful for our community groups amongst others. If afternoons don't suit you and you'd like to view in the evening and put in a secret bid, do let us know and we'll make arrangements for you.