Leisure centre award Bowmore group makes a splash at awards
The Islay and Jura Community Enterprise was among the 187 charities, voluntary and social enterprises this year to be presented with the Queen’s Award, which recognises voluntary services. It was the only group from the Argyll region to be honoured with this prestigious award.
The winning enterprise, trading as the Mactaggart Leisure Centre at Bowmore, was presented with the crystal award by Patrick Stewart, Lord Lieutenant of Argyll and Bute, and was received on the group’s behalf by enterprise chairman Donald Jackson.
The Lord Lieutenant congratulated the committee and staff, who not only raised the money to build the facility but operate it in an imaginative and efficient manner. They have also overseen its activities expanding well beyond the original swimming pool provision.
In his acceptance speech, the enterprise chairman thanked all the volunteers and employees whose dedication over many years ensured the continuance of the community- owned and run leisure centre.
The Queen’s Award was set up in 2000 to mark the monarch’s golden jubilee, and earlier this year representatives from the islands’ enterprise group attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace, where they received official notice of their achievement. The island leisure centre first opened its doors in 1991 following a concerted fundraising campaign by members of the community. It has expanded in that time and as well as the four-lane 25-metre swimming pool it also houses, among other facilities, a sauna, fitness suite, tan cabin and laundry.
Pipers’ upgrade
Members of the Islay Pipe Band have plenty to blow about following their promotion to the dizzy heights of Grade 2 in the pipe band hierarchy.
The band has been congratulated on its achievement and on its various competition successes during the current season.
Led by Pipe Major Nigel Morris, the band continues to enjoy sponsorship from Kilchoman Distillery and also acknowledges the support received from the Mactaggart 3rd Fund and the Schroder Foundation.
Remembering Fraser
Music at this year’s Islay Session, which runs from November 6- 8, will celebrate the life and musical talents of local musician Fraser Shaw, whose untimely death in May of this year devastated his family and saddened all who knew this young and able performer and composer.
Fraser’s compositions will be much to the fore during the sessions, which will include a tribute concert in the Bruichladdich village hall on November 7.
Other gigs will take place in the Port Charlotte Hotel, and featured artistes will include Maeve MacKinnon, Eilidh Shaw, Ross Martin and Adam Sutherland. Also appearing will be Deoch ’n Doras and the Mav- erick Angels, a group in which Fraser was heavily involved and was dear to his heart.
Coffee mornings
The last in the current series of the Round Church coffee mornings takes place in the Bowmore buffet hall on Saturday, October 31, beginning at 10.30am.
These monthly ‘get togethers’ have been well supported over the past months and have greatly enhanced the church’s fabric fund.
Those fearing caffeine withdrawal symptoms should take heart as a Christmas-themed coffee morning for the same cause takes place in the same venue on Saturday, December 5.
Hugh Smith, 4 Flora Street, Bowmore, Islay PA43 7JX. Telephone: 01496 810658.