ANN FOTHERINGHAM

DID you know you could make reusable nappies from bamboo? Or that Glasgow makes its very own fizzy drink? Or that there are Great-Crested Grebes nesting on a city loch? I didn’t either, until I read the entries for this year’s Evening Times Streets Ahead Awards.

Sometimes it’s easy to miss the whirlwind of good work going on in the city because the bad stuff tends to hit the headlines first.

But our Streets Ahead campaign, which has been going strong for six years, tries to redress the balance.

Tonight, in the lovely surroundings of the Winter Gardens on Glasgow Green, groups and individuals from dozens of projects all across the city will hear who has won this year’s clutch of trophies in the Streets Ahead awards.

There are prizes for best garden, best clean-up campaign, best environmental initiative, best community garden, best business, best community initiative and best school, plus a ‘top banana’ trophy for the overall winner chosen by the judges.

The venue will be packed with schoolkids and pensioners, gardeners and growers, community activists and business bosses, all of whom have played their part in improving Glasgow for the benefit of all of us.

As always, the nominations have revealed some breathtaking stories of determination and selflessness amongst the people of Glasgow.

There are inspirational tales of neighbours and friends coming together to fight isolation, fuel and food poverty and anti-social behaviour.

One of the most touching is the story of the Mini Multis Residents Association in Maryhill. In 2012, a local man called Alistair Goold was very interested in a door to door survey being carried out by Maryhill Housing Association.

At the time, there were no tenants’ groups or resident get togethers in the multi-storey blocks on Legowan Place, and the housing association wanted to find out if anyone would be interested in setting one up.

Alistair stepped up, and for the next five years, became one of the driving forces behind real change in the area.

He served on the Board and became chairperson of the Mini Multis as they fought to create a community garden and play area for young families and keen gardeners, and he was the proudest person there when it opened its doors last year.

Sadly, Alistair died in March and his devastated friends and neighbours decided to honour him with a commemorative bench in the garden he had worked so hard to provide for local people.

At the dedication ceremony, his Maryhill Housing Association colleagues summed it up.

“Alistair was a true servant of the community,” said chairman Roger Popplewell, while chief executive Bryony Willett said: “Alistair’s dedication to Maryhill Housing and the wider Maryhill community was inspirational. He worked so hard for the good of others.”

That is the message at the heart of our Streets Ahead campaign.

Tonight we will honour all those who, like Alistair, just get on with it and work hard, for the good of others.