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Increasing Entertainment for Largs Yuletide Night
2024-09-18 • No comments • • North Coast
Largs Events’ objective is to bring events to the town that will bring pleasure for the residents and their families, whilst also increasing footfall to a popular “seaside town” which following the pandemic and consequential “Cost of Living” crisis, has seen a changing and declining landscape of choice and facilities. Increasing awareness of the available choices is key to creating a friendly and enjoyable experience to residents and visitors alike. We have managed to increase our events by use of a local partnership to facilitate markets with specific “topics” and these have proved popular. One of our foundation Events is the annual “Yuletide Night” which has always been popular, and we would like to carry this on. Last year the night cost Largs Events £3,422.00 as we continued our long-term objective of “Social Inclusiveness” and everything “Free”, and indeed all our events are wherever possible free, and across all genders and ages. As a committee we decided to refrain from approaching the troubled businesses last year because of the financial situation and will try to do that until a more appropriate time. This year we have been advised by NAC that the erection\dismantling of the Lights will need to be paid for and we are actively pursuing funding for this in order to ensure Yuletide actually happens. We have already obtained funding to buy new lights as the existing one are failing and beyond their best and hope to have this in place for this year.
Our Yuletide night is a night for all the family and we would like to ensure there is something there for all family members and here is where we are asking for help. We usually try to have an area for live entertainment ranging from choirs to some local entertainers, this we have in the past been unable to make best use of due to lack of funds and would like to ask for a sum of £1000 to hire the stage area, to accommodate the local singers, but to make better use of, we can get hire some more “established” musicians to come to Largs and people can enjoy them, again foc. Any spare funds could also be used to add extra entertainment to the event, but without current costings we cannot say at this stage.
Our normal Fundraising activities will continue with the hope of building on the last couple of years successful events, whilst maintaining our desire to make Largs a town we can all be very proud of.
Oor Hame
2024-09-11 • 8 comments • • North Coast
Just before Easter 2024, we conducted workshops with young people and children in West Kilbride to explain and encourage them to use photographs as a means to tell stories and impart information. The children and young people then submitted their images on the theme of "Oor Hame", telling what made their home, home. These images were then exhibited in the windows of the shops and other businesses along Main Street and Ritchie Street in the village, creating an open air gallery which residents and visitors to the village could enjoy.
We wish to repeat this project during the same Easter holidays for 2025, but this time we will be running the workshops with the cooperation of West Kilbride Primary School and other youth groups (Brownies, Boys' Brigade etc). In 2024 we held the workshops at what we later realised was not an ideal time, and did not get the level of involvement of young people we believe the project has the potential to engage; that said, we did receive nearly 50 images, and the exhibition was a success, but we believe that with more targeted workshops we could easily receive 10 times the number of images, making the open air gallery that much larger and spreading the collected images around more of West Kilbride's streets.
The project in 2024 looked at what "Hame" means, as it was triggered by Mandy Edwards' documentary project of the same name. For 2025 we have yet to identify a theme (we intend to consult with the school, groups and, most importantly the children) but believe that "Oor Hame" is a good name for the ongoing project, whatever theme is adopted, as it emphasises the community nature of the project.
Funding is required for workshop facilitation (£200), purchase of single use cameras (£250) printing and presentation of images (£150), publicity material (£100)
West Kilbride Yuletide Group (WKYG) lighting motifs
2024-09-11 • No comments • • North Coast
Purchase of replacement motifs
Project is to purchase 3 motifs to feature in the centre of the village's Main Street. This is where the Yuletide Parade passes through and the public follow to visit other events and traders' premises.
The new motifs will replace old, malfunctioning motifs and will enhance the atmosphere in the village to encourage residents and visitors to mingle together in an enhanced atmosphere.
Blachere Illuminations have quoted £321 each for these motifs, including fitting of wall-mounted brackets to maximise display values, as per attached quote.
Winter Wellbeing Christmas Fair
2024-09-19 • No comments • • North Coast
St. Mary's Parent Council actively collaborates with all other centres in Largs Campus to provide activities that engage with our local community. We have successfully run projects to support intergenerational working as well as developing excellent relationships with families across both primary schools. Everyone in our local commuity is welcome to participate in the life and activities of St. Mary's Primary School and the Parent Council understands that Christmas can be a very difficult time for an increasing number of people. Last year, we successfully hosted a Winter Wellbeing Christmas Fair where everyone in the local community was invited to attend. All attendees enjoyed a free hot meal and drink as well as treats provided by the Parent Council. The event was incredibly well-attended and a fantastic success, which would not have been possible without the generous donation of £300 from the Locality Participatory Budget. We have listened closely to feedback from all who attended last year and there is a great deal of interest in inviting local groups who can provide advice, support and befriending opportunities for vulnerable families and individuals locally. We know that the impact of last year's event was incredibly positive and anecdotal evidence shows that the event was, for some, the highlight of the Christmas period. As a Parent Council, we have a strong desire to reach as many people as possible in our local community to offer an event with a free hot meal and drink. We will also provide activities, entertainment, and opportunities to make, maintain, and rekindle links with local support opportunities. The cost of the food for this event will be £450 and we will provide Christmas Gift Bags for our more vulnerable families and individuals. These will include a small food treat, alcohol-free mulled wine, a Christmas card( made by our pupils), a hot chocolate pack (made by our pupils), reindeer food (made by pupils), and hand-crocheted wrist warmers (made by pupils and parents). Our Crochet Club begins soon and through this, we hope to provide ongoing opportunities for intergenerational working where older members of our community pass on their skills to our youngsters who will enjoy spending time and having fun with their older mentors. The cost of materials to make Christmas Gift Bags is £450. This brings the total cost of our project to £900. This expenditure will be the catalyst for generating a wide range of collaborative support opportunities throughout our local community.
Barrfield Community Garden in Largs
2024-09-09 • No comments • • North Coast
Barrfield Community Garden is a new space located in Largs. Though only created in the winter of 2023, already volunteers have brought in raised beds, planted a large varity of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and harvested vegetables which were donated to the Largs Food Bank. We have served as a site for local small projects as well as a well-being space allowing local people with varying levels of ability to work with plants. We hope to expand this site in the coming years to grow more food and create a space for local people of all ages and ability to engage with, as well as of course continue to grow tasty food and beautiful flowers to share with Largs and those who presently do not have access to healthy, locally-grown food.
At present, the site has water but no electricity. We'd love to keep a few plants growing well into the autumn and need to procure solar-powered grow lights to do so. This involves the purchase of two sets of grow lights with attached solar panels to keep our melon, pepper, lettuce and tomato harvests going into the late autumn.
Our water pipes are at present not protected from the colder temperatures that come with Scottish winter. We are seeking to insulate the water pipes and employ a local plumber to install this insulation.
In the interest of increasing the environmental sustainability of the Barrfield Community Garden space, we would like to install drain pipes and water butts. This will allow the garden to collect and utilise rainwater for watering the garden's beds and indoor plants.
People in Largs may be aware we recently experienced vandalism to the garden. After this event, we would like to install a motion-activated camera, as well as solar- powered, motion-activated lights for the main path into the garden.
Adequate amounts of compost will be needed for planting over the winter, including but not limited to the growing of garlic and seed potatoes.
We would in future hope to create a tiered garden on the hilly portion at the east side of the garden. The area is at present covered with thistles and weeds, so we would to cover this area with weed-killing membrane as the first step of this project.
10 Meter weed membrane roll (x10) @ £6.95 = £69.50
10w led Solar grow light (x2) @ 68.50 = £137.00
Motion sensor lights for pathway lighting (x6) @ £6.99 = £41.94
SolarCam Kit with night vision and SDCard = £85
Builders bag Compost = £52
Insulation for water pipes, materials and labor = £200
Water butts and guttering for rainwater collection = £400
Giving people choice in our food larder and increasing their dignity
2024-09-11 • No comments • • North Coast
We would like to offer a pay forward scheme for all 89 of our members and their children for the local church of the Nazarene located in Largs. The church takes a token £2 for a meal and children go free. We would like to offer a free ticket to all our members some of whom come to us at desperate times . We feel if they can go and try it for free they might return the next week. It is non relligious and welcoming and older people might enjoy the company as well as the food. Largs has a large elderly population most of whom are too proud to come to our larder and if we could get the older people who do come to the larder to tell their friends we might not only provide them with food but company as well. Its all about dignity in food provision.
Largs Karate Club, Club T-shirts
2024-09-11 • 1 comment • • North Coast
We are a local, volunteer run club that provides instruction in the Martial Art of Shotokan Karate to adults, youth and children. Karate teaches self respect, discipline, respect for others and the importance of healthy exercise. We have run various courses bringing world class instructors to the local area as well as taking part in local, national and international events and competitions. Any money taken in fees helps fund our courses and subsidise our students competition entry fees and or travelling costs.
As a local sports club we are keen to promote positive mental wellbeing as well as physical health, we encourage our members to participate at their own level of fitness whilst providing a variety of exercises to work towards improving their overall fitness and skill level. We have a code of conduct which ensures our members are supported and have polices in place to ensure our club is an inclusive space where participants feel welcome and respected.
The provision of t-shirts with the club logo will help to raise the profile of the local area and also instil a sense of pride and connection to the area in our students. This will help our members to develop community spirit through a sense of belonging. We hope this will also encourage new members to join enhancing our community.
The ability to provide these t-shirts at no or little cost to the students also prevents anyone feeling marginalised in this current difficult financial climate. This will ensure equality and finacial inclusion during the cost of living crisis. This will make joining the Karate club more accessable for those who may not have the finacial resources to access similar activites that require equipment or clothing to participate.
As a club we are passionate about the enviromental impact. We encourage our members to walk or wheel to the club training sessions where possible as a way to promote positive change to reduce our carbon footprint and encourage enviromental awarness, to this end we are looking at ecologically sound t-shirts utilising organic and recycled materials where possible..
We would seek to purchase around 60 t-shirts as this would allow us to distribute them to our current members as well as encouraging new members to join.
Purchase of 30 Adult T shirts with logo, including set up cost for logo £400
Purchase of 30 Kids T shirts with logo: £300.00
Largs Table Tennis Club tournament & equipment boost
2024-09-08 • No comments • • North Coast
We would like to run a banded table tennis tournament at Inverclyde Sports Centre this season. A banded tournament would bring to Largs approximately 60–70 players from across Ayrshire and Glasgow for an afternoon's competitive table tennis. Hall hire for 5 hours would be £440. This would be a once-a-year annual event, and as such the cost of the hall hire does not constitute rent for the normal week-to-week running of our club.
We also need some equipment for our club for the new season. First off, we would like to purchase a training robot to help elevate the skill levels of our existing members. A training robot is also a big draw for younger players. Secondly, we would also like to purchase some new bats, as the ones we currently have are poor and not suited to developing players.
Breakdown of costs:
Hall hire for banded tournament: £440
Entry-level training robot: £200
Starter bats x 8: £80
Intermediate bats and rubbers x 5: £200
Balls (2x120): £75
Total: £995
We currently have £550 in our club account and are able to put £300 towards costs, so we are applying for a total of £695.
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Largs Table Tennis Club attracts people from across the North Coast, including Fairlie, West Kilbride, Skelmorlie and Inverkip. Almost two years ago we took advantage of the fact that our town enjoys a state-of-the-art sports facility and a wide array of table tennis equipment by opening our own club in the town. Largs is fast becoming a hotspot of Scottish table tennis; in March, the centre hosted the Scottish Nationals, and in July, Inverclyde hosted the Scottish Parkinson’s International for the second year running. One of our coaches, Paul Carson, attended a supplementary course at the Scottish Parkinson’s International designed to better prepare coaches for people with Parkinson’s attending the club. We have members with Parkinson’s and members with MS. Table tennis is renowned in sports circles for its benefits to people with degenerative and neurological conditions. We aim to embrace all people at our weekly sessions; it is an open group, and you can regularly find a ten-year-old playing with a sixty-year-old, and young and old mixing with people with various disabilities. We are very proud of this fact.
Our club is open to all ages and to encourage everyone we only charge £5 for the two hours session and we have made it FREE for under 18s.
Cycling Without Age Scotland: Largs - funding for operation of booking system
2024-09-10 • No comments • • North Coast
Description: Our CWAS Chapter in Largs provides outings of between 20 and 90 minutes along the Promenade for residents in care homes, and individuals at home, giving them spells of fresh air and conversation, plus seeing life along the shore. The visual stimulation and conversations along the way are hugely beneficial to their physical and emotional wellbeing.
The outings (jaunts) take place on our ‘trishaw’ (see photo) which is powered by one of our volunteer pilots (assisted by a battery) and carries a deserving passenger plus a carer or relative. We are also happy to take out disabled people of all ages, special schools and children’s and adults’ hospices.
Benefits to Volunteers: The volunteers, once trained and qualified, get a chance to be part of something that makes a real difference to the lives of those in their community. They form friendships and, from the stories they hear on the rides, learn more about their locale. Plus they develop important social skills and their own health will benefit from the exercise and fresh air. All our volunteers find it a hugely rewarding activity.
Benefits to Passengers: Our service helps address loneliness and isolation for the elderly and those of all ages less mobile in the local community but it can also be a lifeline to able-bodied people who may have experienced mental health challenges. This unique befriending service is often the highlight of a passenger’s week and something they look forward to.
With an unrestricted view and interested, lively company, fresh air, a slow pace and the chance to interact with passersby (old friends and new), the rides are a highly stimulating experience for many who spend much of their time indoors and on their own. The CWAS Trishaws provide a sustainable form of recreation providing access to the fantastic scenery to those who would otherwise be unable to enjoy those routes. In addition, the opportunity for rides will allow community events to be more inclusive and accessible.
Seeing other people and places stimulates both the mind and the body and leaves the person feeling happy and even those who have memory impairment are left with feelings of elation.
Breakdown of Costs: We are seeking funding to cover the cost of operating our booking system for the next two years. This is made up of:
- Mobile Phone pay-as-you go costs of £10 per month for 24 months => £240
- Online TeamUp Calendar at £9 per month => £216
Feasibility study to construct an all weather multi use pitch
2024-09-10 • No comments • • North Coast
We require funding to pay the Architect for a feasibility study before embarking down the road of full design and setting up a committee. A local Architect McMillan & Cronin have had previous involvement in the area (ie the tennis court and future grass pitch) and would be will to use the information already gathered to provide this feasibility study. The study would look at Sports Scotland approvals, routes of all existing underground services, available power for lighting, budget costs and statutory requirements. The cost would be a one off fee of £1000 paid on completion of the feasibility report
west Kilbride is the only village in North Ayrshire without an all weather pitch.