Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Stars set to shine on London visit
Group receive £10,000 in lottery funding
It’s London calling for youngsters from Shining Stars theatre group, after they hit the lottery jackpot.
The Coatbridge group, which runs music, drama and dance workshops for children with additional support needs, received funding of £10,000 in the latest round of grants announced by the Awards for All scheme.
Now nearly 30 young people aged between five and 24 are preparing to head to the capital in October, accompanied by parents and group volunteers, to see West End show Wicked and enjoy the sights and sounds of the city.
Shining Stars and a further 11 Monklands organisations shared a combined National Lottery jackpot of almost £ 84,000, as they were among nearly 500 groups from across Scotland sharing a total of £3.8 million in the latest round of grants for community, arts and sports groups.
Group founder Katie Slavin told the Advertiser: “We were really pleased to get such a great amount of lottery funding, and the kids are really excited about going to London.
“I asked the kids what show they fancied and gave them options – they listened to some of the music from Wicked and that was the one they really wanted to go and see, and I think they were attracted to the lady with the green face!
“They can’t wait and are asking if we’re going to see the Queen!
“Some have never been away from home before, and we’re staying really centrally and hoping to do things all together like going to the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.
“Our lottery funding also allowed us to send our volunteers to training in Makaton sign language, first aid and other courses to help understand some of the needs our members have.
“We have Makaton-friendly status and this means that the whole team of volunteers is trained.”
Katie added: “The people from the National Lottery were really lovely; I met them at an open day and then they came to meet the kids in the group and took me through filling in the application.
“Our group doesn’t get funding, it relies on volunteers and on parents organising things like bingo and race nights; we thought we’d take the chance to see if we could get the whole £10,000, and feel really lucky to have got it.”
Monklands’ other lottery winners include pupils at three local schools who will be jumping for joy in upgraded playgrounds – St Andrew’s in Burnfoot and St Augustine’s in Coatbridge have each been awarded £10,000 to install additional equipment, while Kirk O’ Shotts in Salsburgh is to receive £8047.
Meanwhile, Monklands Women’s Aid has been granted £9999 from the Big Lottery Fund for an IT upgrade, allowing the organisation to upgrade its computing infrastructure.
Ecosse amateur boxing club and Calderbank bowling club both received support to recruit new members, respectively receiving £6820 from the Big Lottery Fund and £5000 from Sport-Scotland; with the bowling club planning to focus specifically on encouraging more young people into the sport and developing their junior section.
Glenmavis village events group received £4910 for their programme of local events, while the senior citizens’ club at Whifflet community centre will be adding to their range of activities with a £ 2550 grant and the senior members of Airdrie High Church received £2430 for various outings and their monthly entertainment.
Meanwhile, there was also lottery success for two county-wide organisations – North Lanarkshire Women’s Aid received £8260 to fund Lifeline 24/ 7, its round- the- clock support service, while Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire was given £ 5851 to help with the training of volunteers for this month’s British Transplant Games.
Big Lottery Fund director for Scotland Martin Cawley said: “This is a fantastic amount of National Lottery money, going to hundreds of groups run by people actively working to make their communities better places to live.”
They can’t wait and are asking if we’re going to see the Queen!