Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Kind gesture from Dundee’s Michelin staff gives kids a day out in sun
K I N D-hea rted workers from Dundee’s Michelin pl a nt g a v e c i t y k i d s a su mmer t reat a fte r donating cash for a special day out.
Despite having their own job and financial worries, members of staff got together with Unite the Union and cleansing workers from Dundee City Council to give families from Mill o’ Mains a day out to remember.
Between them, the workers raised about £500 to pay for a bus and a day out at the Active Kids Adventure Park in Perth.
Marc Jackson, Unite’s senior shop steward at Michelin, said workers were delighted to treat local youngsters.
He said: “We felt it was the least we could do.
“We are facing our own worries through the closure of Michelin but we are all part of the same community.
“Dundee has got behind the Michelin workers and we feel this is a way to back the people of the city.
“Many of our own workers come from Mill o’ Mains and we are very much aware that since the community pavilion burned down the kids have had nowhere to go.”
Michelin staff were inspired to help out after it was revealed the people of Mill o’ Mains would be forced to go through a third summer without a pavilion.
The pavilion was badly damaged by fire in the summer of 2017 and was subsequently demolished. The community has been left without a centre of its own ever since.
Among those suffering the most are local schoolchildren who are struggling to find somewhere safe and fun to go during the long summer holidays.
Unite regional industrial officer Bob McGregor said: “We were approached by Jim Malone at Mill o’ Mains to ask if we could help out.
“We were very happy to do something for the community.
“To be able to give some of the kids and their families time away on a fun trip has been great.
“We know that some of these kids won’t be doing very much this summer and they don’t even have their community pavilion to go to for activities.”
Yvonne Mullen, from the Mill o’ Mains Community Pavilion committee, said everyone was grateful to the union and workers for the gesture.
She said: “This is the third summer in a row we have been without the centre following the fire in July 2017.
“The people of Mill o’ Mains are feeling they are a forgotten community.
“We have had our hopes raised and dashed so many times about a replacement pavilion or a temporary building.
“We really believed that we were finally to have a temporary building in place for this summer but once again that hasn’t happened.
“These guys have given us almost £500 which is a fantastic amount and means we have been able to organise this day out.”