The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Kilted hero helping to keep Scotland beautiful
Every community has its unsung hero.
They’re the people who go above and beyond to help others in their own neighbourhood. Whether they’re out picking up litter in the rain, delivering shopping to elderly neighbours or cutting grass for everyone in their street, we think they should be celebrated. And that’s exactly what we intend to do.
From today, we will be featuring the community champions living in our midst in Dundee, Fife, Angus and Perthshire.
Every Monday, we’ll tell the story of a person who voluntarily goes over and above to help others.
We’ve spoken to men, women and children.
Some of them are well known in their community but others work away quietly in the background.
Whatever they’re doing, they make a difference.
And we want to say ‘thank you’ with a certificate and a small token of appreciation. We’re also looking for help to identify community champions in our area.
Do you know someone who makes a difference?
If so, let us know by emailing community@thecourier.co.uk
And don’t forget to include the contact details of the person you’re nominating.
Peter Wright is a familiar figure to people in Buckhaven. The 77-year-old is out four days a week in his kilt, picking litter off the streets and putting it in the bin.
Peter is a volunteer with local environmental charity Clear and reckons he picks up four or five bags of rubbish every week – whatever the weather.
But while he enjoys doing his bit for the community, he wishes it wasn’t necessary.
“Scotland is a beautiful country but there are two things that spoil it – litter and fly-tipping,” he said.
“I can’t do much about the tipping but I can do something about the litter.”
Peter, who has six kilts but doesn’t own a pair of trousers, got involved five years ago.
“I started 60 years after I became a paper boy,” he said.
“I never thought then I would end up as a volunteer scaffie!”
A former finance officer with Glenrothes Development Corporation, he put himself forward after reading an article in The Courier where Clear chairman Allen Armstrong was appealing for helpers.
“I thought it was a good idea and I was mulling it over when I bumped into Allen, who was busy picking up litter,” said Peter.
“Because I’m an idiot, I gave him a hand and I was snapped up just like that,” he joked.
Peter says most people use the bins provided but he gets frustrated at those who don’t.
“The vast majority of folk
play the game but there is still a minority who disregard bins altogether,” he said.
“I’m grateful to quite a few folk in the Bird Scheme, where I live, who I know do their bit.
“I enjoy it,” he said. “I wish it wasn’t necessary but it gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.”
He particularly loves the social aspect of his work.
“I can have a chat with people in the passing,” he said. “I say hello to folk, shout at their dogs or their dogs shout at me – it’s been a lifesaver.
“But my ambition is to come out some day and there be no litter.
“In the meantime, the best advice I ever got was once you’ve picked up a bit of rubbish, don’t look behind you.
“There are two certainties – there will always be litter and there will always be weather.”
Peter’s mother made his first kilt when he was just three years old.
His grandfather and great-grandfather were both pipers and often wore a kilt, with young Peter following suit.
“I used to wear trousers to school but when I kept outgrowing them my mother said, ‘that’s it, I’m not buying you any more’.
“She told me I could wear my kilt to school and I’ve been wearing it ever since.
“I don’t even own a pair of trousers.”