2024 is our centenary year. Each year, we organise a number of parades such as Remembrance Day in Saltcoats and Stevenston. We also organise the annual HMS Dasher Memorial weekend at the end of March. These parades are not funded directly by North Ayrshire Council. Instead, it is up to our branch to arrange the funding for our parades. This application will go some way to ensure that our parades in Nov 2024 and Mar 2025 can go ahead.

We plan to plant several hundred Bluebell bulbs in the woodland areas of Holm Plantation in Ardrossan, and plant an additional 20 apple trees in the community orchard we have been planting at the site over the past two years.

Food & Heat is going to be the topic of our winter campaign for the community. We run the community cafe in the centre which is open 5 days a week 7.30am until 4.30pm. The centre would like to supply hot soup with a roll, or a hot meal & a hot drink 3 times a week to take a wee bit of pressure off in the winter.

Ardrossan Indoor Bowls Club has a large function suite which, outwith funeral teas, is unused during the day since the closure of its Cafe. It does offer a Community Corner where there are facilities to exchange books, use games such as cards, dominoes and board games and some craft materials. We would love to expand this and also offer it to be used as a Warm Hub, during the Winter. People from the 3 Towns could call in and be provided with hot drinks and soup and sandwiches.

We are newly elected House Captains of Mayfield Primary School working with Mayfield Parent Council. We would like some help from PB locality funding to help us create a wellbeing area within our school so we can use the space at lunch time and afterschool. This will include picnic benches, planters and 2 basketball stands as we want to start a lunch time and afterschool activity club.

Grapevine Theatre CIC will work with P6/7 children of Ardeer Primary. The play will be devised by young people using Shaun Tan's 'The Red Tree' as a stimulus. The picture book theme is finding hope in sadness, which will be explored through the drama workshops and the final play. The project will impact the school as a whole, using craft workshops to add props for the performance. Parents, carers and classes will be invited to the final performance to engage the wider community in the themes.

The project supports people living with dementia to enjoy 1-2-1 befriending, provide companionship within their home, or attend one of our dementia wellbeing cafes.