Volunteers light up Christmas for communities
The second Christmas in the pandemic is just around the corner, and volunteers have worked hard to make sure there will be plenty of seasonal cheer to brighten the Covid gloom in our towns and villages.
The lights are up in Lochgilphead thanks to the Christmas lights committee and in Ardrishaig, with necessary paperwork completed by Ardrishaig Community Council.
But the practical work was done with the invaluable help of volunteers from firms including MacLeod Construction, Midton and Mellex who repaired the Christmas lights and put them up last week.
RDS Forestry of Tarbert again stepped forward to supply trees.
Ardrishaig Community Trust’s appeal for decorations for a tree in the public hall met with generous donations and it will be decorated this weekend.
An appeal has also been issued for young people to submit Christmas artwork to be displayed in the newly-refurbished Ardrishaig Public Hall windows, and a great response is reported.
The Inveraray Christmas lights switch-on is planned for tomorrow (Saturday December 4) at 5pm.
Inveraray Community Council volunteers were helped by Argyll Estates, which again provided the tree and Michael Swales, who repaired a cherry picker kindly lent by the George Hotel.
Santa will be at Inveraray Pier and local singers Abi Cuthbert and Jackie Kerr will entertain with Christmas songs. And the winner of Inveraray’s annual Unsung Hero award will be announced.
Impressive as the others are, there would be only one winner if there was a Christmas tree competition the creel tree in Tarbert.
The Tarbert Christmas light switch-on took place on Friday November 26. The village, in fact, has three trees - one at the fire station, one on the Beilding and the beautiful tree of fishing creels.
Tarbert minister Reverend Lyn Peden thanked everyone for coming on what was forecast to be a wild night and she was joined by KatyEllen Mellish, who was in charge of pushing the button to flood the village with light.
Santa’s elves Ava Laing, Jack Sinclair and Rosie Little were also on hand to help organisers spread some Christmas cheer.
The organisers want to thank the volunteers who put the creel tree together and to all the fishermen who rallied round donating creels to make sure the village looks fabulous.