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 7th 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.