The club has provided a platform for Irvines first competitive basketball team and inspiring the next generation. 

We are applying for approximatley 50% of the cost of hall hire (£690 based on 2024-25 costs) for the upcoming season and referees costs (£310 based on 2024-25). 

This would really help support our members by decreasing our membership fees during the current financial climate and support them to continue to take part in their sport and continue to increase their physical health and mental well-being and aim to hopefully bring another trophy home to Irvine.

More info on the last season Irvine Sharks win second consecutive unbeaten league title | Irvine Times

We are Lok Oi, a Hong Kong Cantonese community group – our name means bliss or happiness in English. Our project will bring elderly Cantonese speakers and the wider community together through shared lunches. These events will reduce social isolation, give people a chance to meet new friends, and celebrate Cantonese and Chinese culture with others in North Ayrshire. Each session will include traditional food, music, and karaoke to encourage fun, relaxation, and participation. We aim to create welcoming spaces where cultures are shared, connections are built, and wellbeing is improved.

• Venue hire: £300

• Food ingredients and preparation: £700

With your vote, we can make these lunches a reality and bring joy, friendship, and culture to our community.

We are seeking £1,000 in grant funding to support our 50th anniversary celebrations, which will include a commemorative concert and a social gathering. The events will honour our long-standing contribution to the community and provide an inclusive opportunity for members and audience past and present to reconnect and celebrate.

Funding will help cover key costs such as venue hire, conductor/tutor fees, new music, refreshments, and entertainment.

Total costs will well exceed £1,000, so grant support would enable us to subsidise suggested ticket prices/donation and ensure broad participation.

This milestone offers a unique moment to reflect on our legacy and invest in our future, and we would be deeply grateful for your support.

We have provided key facts about our organisation as an attached document. But as an overview, Irvine and Dreghorn Brass is North Ayrshire’s only community brass band organisation and was established in 1975/76. We gained charitable status in 1994. We offer inclusive access to music-making and learning. We operate four distinct programmes: Competition Band; Community Band; Youth Brass Programme and Percussion Programme.

We estimate total costs of £1800.

Estimated Concert Costs: £1050 

Concert venue hire  £250

Conductor/ Tutor fees across all 4 streams (concert + rehearsal) £600

Music, equipment, transport £200

Estimated Social Event Costs: £750

Social venue hire £250

Band / disco  £300

Refreshments / equipment £200

Castle park garden project has been running for about thirteen years. The people with learning disabilities have attended the centre weekly keeping the grass cut, the weeds at bay and the wooden pengola, benches and planters painted yearly. We had some storm damage this year and some of the wooden planters need repaired we also need to buy decking to repair the pengola has the wood has rotted. We also need to get a skip to remove some of the gardens older items that cannot be repaired. The people are from Trindlemoss Day opportunities they work hard weekly in the garden , some also volunteer at the older people lunch club and recently the Castlepark Cafe has now opened up weekly provding another service to the community Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We hope that we are sucessfull in applying for funding to buy the following items so we can repair the broken items and get the garden back to its original state so the community can enjoy spending time in it. We also grow fruit and vegetables that can be used in the centre to make soup and for the lunch club.

Skip Hire £300

wood to repair pengola and planters £300

Paint £90

wood to repair and restore planter - £200

wood screws - £30

new water fountain - £80

Crossing Together Toddlers was formed in March 2024 following the project being approached by two local new parents who felt there was a need for a group locally in Bourtreehill. Both mums, along with another four mums who joined the scaffolding core team last year, are the lead participant, along with our Mission Pioneer in running the weekly sessions on Tuesday mornings for 2 hours at the Relief Mission Centre. The group lost 9 children at the end of last session to nursery and 4 families where the mum returned to work, but since advertising during the summer we quickly reached capacity of 40 babies/toddlers again, who attend with a least one adult per child. The sessions are free to ensure it is accessible to all.

At Crossing Together Toddlers we aim to provide a fun, warm, safe, welcoming and accessible space for babies and toddlers to come along with their grown-ups from Bourtreehill and the surrounding areas of Irvine. In setting up the group we initially looked at accessing funding to purchase equipment and toys however a toddler group in Troon had recently folded and they gifted us items that meant we could launch the group immediately. The group is free of charge to families to access and weekly snacks and craft materials are provided through donations and fundraising. It is important for us to maintain a no charge policy to maximise accessibility due to the cost of living crisis and our locality being significantly impacted with regards poverty. Weekly snacks provided are balanced with items like fruit, toast and juice/water being provided for the children and a warm drink and biscuits/cakes for the grown-ups. As well as the weekly sessions we want to continue to provide the families with new experiences that can include their older children and partners which will extend the community spirit that is being built in and around the group already. These new experiences include family fun days, parties, trips and days out locally and further afield. 

Many of the families who attend the group rarely travel outwith Irvine and it would be great to improve the health and wellbeing through a summer trip to a farm park, which would provide a new experience by seeing the animals we sing about and read about at our weekly song and story time. A Christmas Party with entertainment, hospitality and a visit from Santa would also encourage positive mental health during the festive time that brings much stress with extra financial outgoing in winter. A weekend family fun day using the local park space would enable us to include working parents and older children and through hospitality/food and fun activities create a positive aspect to a park area that carries much saddness in the community and encourage resislience and new owership of the local space. In addition we supported the local community to attend all ages art sessions this year and to host a day just for the toddler families to engage and empower them to see how art together can aid mental health wellbeing and be a positive bonding experience we plan to offer this at Easter this year.

For Crossing Together to provide these experiences at no cost to the families in our locality we would be applying for the PB Locality Funding to help meet these costs as well as doing additional fundraising and seeking donations.

Examples of costings to provide such experiences are:-

Farm park admission (approx 80 people includes under 2s free) = £650

Childrens Party Entertainer = £125

Family Art for the Soul Session with Art Therapist and art/craft materials = £150

Hospitality Party/Funday = £130

Additional costings for items like craft materials and additional hospitality would be sought through donations and fundraising.

Considering that a large proportion (at least 50%) of our learners are drawn from communities which are feature on the bottom 20%, 10%, or 5% of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, our Band is a lifeline in preserving the often-expensive art of Highland Bagpiping and Drumming the community.

We see our greatest achievements to date as being the achievements that our young members have attained through the years. Our young learners have gone on to a range of positive destinations in the piping community including study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and many have gone on to play in Grade 1 corps including Inveraray and District, Shotts and Dykehead, The Glasgow Skye Association, and Greater Glasgow Police Scotland Pipe Band.

Specific Project

Notwithstanding the success of our free tuition programme in producing high caliber pipers, drumming tuition in our community has significantly trailed behind. Drumming tuition in the wider area has been inconsistent both in terms of provision and quality. This has led to a shortage of young, innovative, high-quality players within the community which, over time, has become a key factor in restraining the local piping and drumming ‘scene’ from reaching its full potential.

To resolve this problem, we have recently launched a new drumming tuition initiative. We have acquired three Grade One drumming instructors (two side drummers and one tenor drummer) from outwith our community to revitalise drumming tuition in the area. These instructors are young (all under 30) and are delivering first rate tuition in a forward-thinking manner that cuts through to our young learners. We shall equip these learners with the skills they need to take their drumming to the next level and we intend to facilitate them acquiring qualifications through the Piping and Drumming Qualifications Board.

Total Amount Requested: £1000

Total uniform cost £300

Transport - £250

Day to day running expenses: £450

Total Project Cost £1000

We have a reserve account that will be able to accomodate the other £4,000.00

For video's etc, please see https://www.facebook.com/share/1Ca2wKgeau/

If our application is successful, we propose to buy a Nova Viking 16" DVR-83700 at a cost of £1194.70 including VAT. Delivery will be extra but we will fund anything over £1000 from our own resources.