18th Dec 2015
Wishing you a joy filled Christmas
and a happy & blessed New Year
from all of us at the Atholl Centre
Iain, Anne, Chris & Wilma
Sat 28th Nov
It’s the first weekend of advent and Pitlochry is hotching
with people at Pitlochry’s first Christmas Festival which includes 2 craft
fairs and the Church of Scotland Christmas tree festival. Our Christmas tree
was on the theme of mental wellbeing and we worked together with Pacer to make
the decorations. Christmas is a time of great pressure for people suffering
from stress, depression, ill health and bereavement and they need our prayers
and support to help them through. That’s why the support groups here are so
important. A pocket guide to coping through Christmas has been published by
Plusperth & will be available at reception.
It was a great shock to us all to hear that one of our
regulars Fred Smith passed away suddenly last week. Fred wrote books here with
the help of Jim from Adult Learning and at soup lunch last Friday he had been
telling everyone that his latest book had just been published. We’ll miss him
greatly. Support worker Pam wrote, “You (at the Atholl Centre) had all become
one of the cornerstones of his life: keeping a friendly, watchful eye on him
and treating him with the great respect that he deserves.”
The terrible events in Paris have affected us all and this
month we have heard from 3 of our French interns. Clara says “I miss you”.
Camille says “Thanks” (for our support) and Alexia says “Pray for France.”
Michal has also been in touch from Poland. He is settling in well to his course
and produced another new video with footage he took while he was here.
Amazingly it features Fred.
We took advantage of the launch of White Christmas to open
for B&B this weekend, the only one this month where we have not had groups.
We have had 5 residential groups this month including youth and elderly, able
bodied & disabled, church groups & community groups. In the quieter mid
weeks Iain & Anne have been to a number of training & networking events
to improve what we do here. Iain went to the Scottish Conference for managers
of Christian conference and outdoor centres and attended one of the Perth
Business Week seminars. Anne went to a seminar about “The future of the Web”, a
funding networking evening and a workshop on filing on your computer. She also
picked up an award for our community garden at an “It’s Your Neighbourhood”
presentation event in Stirling.
Generous donations of apples supplemented the first apples
harvested from our garden so we could make apple crumble for our guests and
Spiced Apple Jam (available here for a donation to our building fund). Talking
about donations, the fund for our conference room has continued to grow and
more grant applications have been sent out in the hope of reaching our total in
the new year. Please pray for their success. After much deliberation we have
ordered the AV for the new room (which had to be organised before year end due
to grant restrictions). It will be installed when the new room is built.
Fillers for the Blythswood shoebox collection here were sent
off at the beginning of the month and people have continued to give to the food
bank. Christians Against Poverty held a special lunch in Aberfeldy where they
shared how they had been blessed and been able to bless others through helping
people out of debt and supporting them on that journey. They’re aiming to raise
another £2,000 before year end to complete their funding. They use our foodbank
as emergency aid and Iain picked up a fresh supply of their books and leaflets,
so if you want to know more, do pick up their literature at reception.
Mon 19th Oct
Thank you to everyone who gave during our crowdfunding campaign. In the last week with additions to both on-line and off-line donations we jumped from £2,330 to £6,638. That is amazing. And even better, we discovered that when this was added to the donations to our building fund since April this year, we have raised over £10,000 through private giving. That is incredible. What brilliant supporters we have & what a brilliant God. This means that aiming for our conference room target of £110,000 to start building we have now raised £89,800. We're well on our way, but £20,200 still to go, so please keep on praying. PS. Wow - another £150 arrived this morning! Thank you so much.
This week has been the second of 3 weeks of the Atholl Gallery craft fair which is held twice a year at the Centre. Local artists & crafters use this opportunity to sell their hand-made goods, with 20% of their profits going to charity each time. It's a great encouragement to local folk whether their crafts are a hobby and people buying their work gives them pleasure & confidence or part of their small business giving them a new shop window and it's good to see people working together for mutual benefit. Our latest video goes behind the scenes at the Gallery & The Rotary Young Artist of the Year Competition as the Atholl Centre promotes creativity in our community.
Also this week we've been busy with B&B as Enchanted Forest gets into it's stride.This year's show is called Flux - yet more fascinating creations in light & sound to delight audiences. The story telling Yurt is there again & a graceful acrobat dances in the air above the loch.They're anticipating 55,000 visitors this year and it fairly extends the "season" in Pitlochry.
The fact that as well as residential groups & community groups we do seasonal B&B helps us play a part in the town's tourist industry - Pitlochry's main economic identity. Participating in Pitlochry Partnership we network in our local business community where it's good to help each other out. Did you know 2 local coffee shops offered vouchers for coffee & cake to add to our crowdfunding campaign? And when a primary school ski trip threatened to go belly up last year due to the snow gates being closed it was the local fish & chip shop who knocked on our door for help. Being in a tourist area also means when you come to visit for your conference or holiday as well as being surrounded by beautiful countryside you're never stuck for something to do. So hope you can come & see us sometime.
The letters start from June 2008 and have continued twice yearly since. You can read them for yourselves on our website. Just go to the “Support Us” heading & find newsletters in the drop down menu on the right hand side.
Developing our vision
In 1969 the Centre was founded with 3 charitable aims: (abridged version)
To promote Christian teaching & discipleship, especially amongst young people
To build up young people to serve in society
To serve the disabled & disadvantaged in society by bridging the gap
8 years ago when Iain became manager his aim was to stay true to the original aims of the Centre with one difference – In the first & second aims, instead of being mainly for young people, education & training leading to spiritual growth & good citizenship was going to be for all ages.
To make these easier to grasp we created a vision statement (also in “support us”), which distilled these aims into 3 areas: training, bridge-building & refreshing.
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Training - Serving the church – both local & national
Throughout these years Pitlochry Baptist Church has enjoyed the Centre’s facilities having church lunches, fundraising events & packing shoeboxes for Blysthwood in the dining room. The children & young people regularly use Centre rooms on Sunday mornings throughout the year and the WA soup lunch has progressed from fortnightly to weekly meetings from Oct – Easter. Mission Possible also meets here monthly.
The Baptist Union of Scotland has used the Centre regularly for Baptist Ministers’ training. May 2011 says a powerpoint presentation at the Baptist Assembly put us firmly back on the map, and use by Baptist Churches & support from Baptist Churches has grown since. We are also used by Christian groups of many other denominations, for alpha groups, church family weekends, youth groups and leadership weekends and to support Christian social ministries. About 68% of our residential groups are run by Christians and 56% are some form of training
Training - Volunteering
As well as volunteers from our local church who encourage us immensely, we have had other local volunteers and a lot of foreign interns to help us in the summer, both through Baptist networks abroad and taking interns from our twin town of Confolens to help with their college courses. Michal first came as a tourism intern, but we discovered he was a skilled video maker when he showed us videos he made for his church in Poland. He writes "One of the better-known benefits of volunteering is the impact on the community. The Atholl Centre offers gardening, housekeeping, maintenance, office work but also general help around the place. We have volunteers of all ages, nationalities and abilities, helping out with the smallest tasks and making a real difference to their lives and the people they meet." I hope you enjoy this week’s short video on volunteering.
As well as volunteers from our local church who encourage us immensely, we have had other local volunteers and a lot of foreign interns to help us in the summer, both through Baptist networks abroad and taking interns from our twin town of Confolens to help with their college courses. Michal first came as a tourism intern, but we discovered he was a skilled video maker when he showed us videos he made for his church in Poland. He writes "One of the better-known benefits of volunteering is the impact on the community. The Atholl Centre offers gardening, housekeeping, maintenance, office work but also general help around the place. We have volunteers of all ages, nationalities and abilities, helping out with the smallest tasks and making a real difference to their lives and the people they meet." I hope you enjoy this week’s short video on volunteering.
Bridge-building - serving our community
This is one of the places God has led us – to the heart of our local community, supporting & encouraging in Christ’s name. May 2010 comments on how busy we are with adult literacy, English as a second Language, U3A, pain-management, disability support, Amnesty International & Madcaps – and we now have over 15 different community groups meeting regularly here. Our good reputation has spread through Perth & Kinross Council and Perth & Kinross Voluntary Services, so we are being recommended for community initiatives in Pitlochry (hosting new support groups for mental health, carers, bereaved folk & building a community garden as well as being the venue of choice for health & wellbeing events)
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Two weeks into crowdfunding & I must admit it’s been a slow start & I’ve felt discouraged. However as I was thinking & praying about this a picture of a leaf cutter ant came into my head. The ant stumbled a couple of times under its burden, almost dropping it but then continued gamely to the end, finally delivering its leaf to the nest. The platform is up for another 4 weeks, so please donate & help us make this accessible conference room happen.
As I’m writing a guest comes up with a donation. How’s that for encouragement! Thank you so much. While our on-line donations are at £255, off-line donations now stand at £1,300 so progress is better than I thought, but we’ve still a way to go, so I hope you too can offer us some encouragement & support.
Then on Friday it was Anne Pool’s funeral, from Pitlochry Baptist, & as well as having some of the guests staying at the Centre everyone dropped tools to muck in & help prepare the funeral tea here. It was such a lovely occasion & a fitting tribute to Anne, who we remember dearly.
Going Solo group filled our weekend with friendly chatter & companionable meals & now we’re back in the office on Monday ready for another week.
Here's our newest video - about the garden. Just one more reason why we invite you to support us. Hope you like it:)
Friday 11th Sept 2015
I’m sitting here eating birthday cake while I write. We’ve got Persona
Counselling training from Stirling University in this week & one of them
had a birthday, so it’s nice to celebrate together & not be too serious as
it’s been quite an intense week for them & I think they’re looking forward
to a rest at the end. We’re looking forward to a bit of a break too as it’s
been back to back groups for the last few weeks. Thankfully our hard work in
the kitchen has been much appreciated as we’ve been catering for a variety of
dietary needs, which has involved a good deal of imagination & juggling.
The ME group, who’ve been coming for a few years, were really pleased
last week with all the changes we’ve made to our accommodation – the colours,
the convenience of en-suites and the way they are ideal for folk with mobility
needs were highly commended. “I’ve been
in many hotel rooms which were supposed to be accessible, but none of them are
a patch on what you have got here.” one lady commented. And in between those 2
we had Montrose C of S Youth Group !
August began with B&B,
meeting loads of new people from all over the world. These included a young
English couple on holiday with her Chilean mother. They had never been to
Scotland before & couldn’t believe how green and beautiful everything is
here. “You are blessed” their mother commented. And then there was the small
group from the Black Watch highland dancing group, Canada. They came to see
Highland dancing in its ancestral home & Iain was able to help them enter
for a local competition (where the girls won a couple of medals) & take
part in our local Highland night. They thought it was awesome & thanked us
by dancing for us at the Centre. You can see the video on our facebook. They
also loved our homemade jam, which has been on sale in the foyer for our
conference room appeal.
Then the wave of residential groups began. First came a group of
vulnerable adults, here for a relaxing short break from the Waddington Street
Centre and straight after them we had Stand International which operates
exchange visits for disabled groups from Eastern Europe & Scotland, so we
had fun with disabled folk from Romania, Ukraine & Belarus, & as well
as doing touristy stuff they visited disabled facilities round us and in
Glasgow & Edinburgh. You’d be amazed how fast some of these young things
wheech along the corridors in their wheelchairs!
When Persona leave it will be B&B for the Blair Atholl Horse trials
which is so popular rooms are booked out a year in advance, and accommodation
can’t be found near the time for love nor money. This year it’s not only gone
international with an estimated 100,000 people booked to attend, but it also
clashes with Pitlochry Highland Games so the whole town will be heaving with
visitors this weekend.
During all this Michal & Anne have been preparing for our
crowdfunding appeal. We were so happy to get the platform up & running, and
we were wondering why so few people had noticed when we realised that 2 of the
links in our last letter hadn’t worked. So much for technology! Please use this
button to go to our crowdfunding page & we hope you do feel able to support
us. Every donation counts.
Meanwhile our work hasn’t stopped. As well as writing updates &
spreading the news, we’ll be releasing cameo video stories at intervals
throughout the campaign to help you understand what goes on here at the Atholl
Centre, and today’s video features last week’s ME group as they talk about
their holiday in our accessible accommodation. I hope you enjoy it.
Today's the Day!
Today our crowdfunding campaign goes live. The culmination of weeks of preparation we're so happy to finally get it up & running. Take a look at:
We really appreciate the way you all support us
...and there are many ways people support the Atholl Centre:
Volunteering - thank you. You help with daily tasks or offer specialist skills such as gardening, electrical, plumbing, DIY, baking and illustration.
Using the Centre Thank you. Some of you make a point of using the Centre for your group event or personal holiday so you can help us support vulnerable people.
Telling your Friends Thank you to all of you who tell your friends & colleagues about us
Training Thank you to all of you who give us specialist advice & training & help us network
Prayer Support Thank you to everyone who prays for us & for the groups who use us
Fundraising Thank you for taking part in challenges such as marathons or cycle events, or holding coffee mornings, helping with bagpacks or putting on music & drama performances.
And Yes - some of you donate and have been doing so for many years. Thank you too.
So what's different about this appeal?
Well, first of all it's largely on the internet.
We were awarded a grant from Santander to pay a social media intern for 3 months and after quite a few applicants & 2 sets of interviews we appointed Michal
...and there are many ways people support the Atholl Centre:
Volunteering - thank you. You help with daily tasks or offer specialist skills such as gardening, electrical, plumbing, DIY, baking and illustration.
Using the Centre Thank you. Some of you make a point of using the Centre for your group event or personal holiday so you can help us support vulnerable people.
Telling your Friends Thank you to all of you who tell your friends & colleagues about us
Training Thank you to all of you who give us specialist advice & training & help us network
Prayer Support Thank you to everyone who prays for us & for the groups who use us
Fundraising Thank you for taking part in challenges such as marathons or cycle events, or holding coffee mornings, helping with bagpacks or putting on music & drama performances.
And Yes - some of you donate and have been doing so for many years. Thank you too.
So what's different about this appeal?
Well, first of all it's largely on the internet.
We were awarded a grant from Santander to pay a social media intern for 3 months and after quite a few applicants & 2 sets of interviews we appointed Michal
Michal caught our attention because he was very enthusiastic about telling stories through video as a way of interacting with the public and drawing new people to our cause as well as enthusing our current supporters. So as well as making the main video on our crowdfunding platform he plans to make a series of cameos telling stories about the people who come to the Centre. That's another way some people have helped us, by the way - by being willing to be interviewed & tell their story. 3 of our cameos have already been released,2 of them filmed & edited by Michal and one filmed by amateurs & edited by Peter Murray from the Media Trust. We hope you enjoy diving into Centre life throughout this campaign. Here's a wee taster:
A big thank you to some of the ladies from Pitlochry Baptist Church WA:) You were brilliant!
A huge well done and thank you to Jim, John, David and Iain for sharing this amazing story with us:) “Emergency Scout Rescue summer 2014.”
Atholl Centre - bringing people together.A quick introduction to what we do here. Thanks to Peter Murray from the Media Trust for editing our first attempts at video making.
Secondly, on crowdfunding platforms you receive rewards and are publicly acknowledged for giving donations
This is a way of saying thank you for supporting our project and showing you we appreciate your support.
Now we know that a good number of our regular supporters might be uncomfortable with this, as you believe strongly that giving should be done quietly and promoting someone else's well-being or happiness is a reward in itself. But don't worry, if you prefer not to be publicly acknowledged or not to receive a reward just email us at admin@athollcentre.org.uk when you have donated and we will thank you privately & adhere to your preferences.
So please go to www.crowdfunder.co.uk/atholl-centre-pitlochry and have a think about how you would like to support us.
This is a way of saying thank you for supporting our project and showing you we appreciate your support.
Now we know that a good number of our regular supporters might be uncomfortable with this, as you believe strongly that giving should be done quietly and promoting someone else's well-being or happiness is a reward in itself. But don't worry, if you prefer not to be publicly acknowledged or not to receive a reward just email us at admin@athollcentre.org.uk when you have donated and we will thank you privately & adhere to your preferences.
So please go to www.crowdfunder.co.uk/atholl-centre-pitlochry and have a think about how you would like to support us.
If you do wish to donate please donate soon.
Statistics show that if folk who already know a project & have already been inspired by the enthusiasm & dedication of those who are running it donate early in a campaign, it encourages donations from folk who hadn't heard of us yet but come across our project on the internet. So if you were going to donate anyway, then can I please ask you to donate at the beginning of the campaign to inspire others.
Thank you J
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