Arran Avoids Accidents project comes to an end

Primary-seven pupils from every school on the island and second-year pupils at Arran High School recently attended the final Arran Avoids Accidents experiential learning event which was held at the Lamlash Community Fire Station.

The event, which has been running on the island for the past 17 years, has sadly decided that it is to cease after work commitments from many of the agencies involved made it increasingly difficult to ensure its survival.

The multi-agency event gave the school children some hands-on experience and provided an insight into what it is like to be a member of an emergency service and to gain knowledge of what to do and what not to do in the case of an emergency.

Each year local services and volunteers gave up their time to help at the event, which often saw up to 11 services taking part. These were the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, Heartstart, First Responders, North Ayrshire Road Safety, Coastguard, RNLI, National Trust Ranger Service, Brodick Country Park, Arran Mountain Rescue Team, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Liz Brady, of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said: ‘We would like to thank all the pupils who have attended the event over the past 17 years and hope that they gained invaluable knowledge from groups of highly professional and experienced people and also to the services and volunteers who gave up their time. Many of them were at the event for the whole 17 years it was run. The event was a great success and without their support it could not have been run so professionally each year.’

Money that was gained through fundraising for the event has been donated to the Arran defibrillator project and the gazebo has been donated to Geoff Norris on behalf of the Coastal Rowing Club.