FREE FAMILY ACTIVITY DAYS A BIG HIT
Everything from sports to crafts
Blairgowrie and Rattray families have enjoyed an exciting line-up of free summer activities thanks to the town’s Proactive Communities group and Perth and Kinross Council.
Every Wednesday during the school holidays, families of school-age children have been able to take part in everything from sports to crafts and hillwalking to tennis.
And those taking part also received a free packed lunch or picnic at every event they attended.
The sessions got off to a fantastic start at the end of June when around 80 people had the chance to meet some of the huskies from Bowland Trails on the outskirts of the east Perthshire town with championship dog-sledders Mary and John Carter.
The following week there were two fun sports activity sessions at Davie Park and Lochy Park run in conjunction with Active Schools Coordinator Caroline Lawrie.
Families were also able to enjoy crafting sessions with volunteers from the Nest Creative Spaces team, a walk up Knockie in Blairgowrie with volunteers from Blairgowrie and District Hillwalking Club, and tennis sessions at Rattray Tennis Club.
Last week saw the culmination of the summer activities programme and a focus on biodiversity as new bird boxes, many with name signs created by youngsters in the town, were put up in Davie Park and Lochy Park, creating two new trails.
Youngsters also had the chance to create bug hotels with Kay Seal from the local Climate Cafe which they were able to take home.
The free sessions are part of Proactive Communities’ Blairgowrie and Rattray Independent (BaRI) Food Project which aims to tackle food poverty, food waste and food education in the town.
The BaRI Food Project, working with Perth and Kinross Council and Tesco and the Co-operative’s Fareshare scheme, offers a range of different subsidised services available to everyone in the town including weekly lunch club, prepared meals, ‘give and take’ community larders and a twiceweekly subsidised food store.
It has also provided hundreds of food parcels to local residents throughout the two lockdown periods and in the run-up to
Christmas, as well as ‘lockdown lunches’ to families of school-aged children.
Lesley McDonald from Proactive Communities explained: “The BaRI Food Project is all about reaching people through food, involving people and connecting with them – whether that is through dropping off meals once a week, holding online cookery classes to bring people together virtually or helping to reduce food waste and people’s food bills through the community larders, providing lockdown lunches for young people and the subsidised store.
“We know that the long school summer holiday period can be challenging for some families and that this is the case more than ever this year, after two lockdowns and the additional financial difficulties the pandemic has caused for many.
“So, working with other groups and organisations in the community, we organised a series of sessions that are free for families to enjoy.
“And as well as the activities, which aimed to encourage healthy and creative interests and foster an interest in biodiversity, those taking part were also given a free packed lunch or picnic.
“We have been absolutely delighted with the response to the summer activities programme, which has seen 265 children, young people and families attend the various events and enjoy the tasty lunches.
“It has been great to be able to provide activities for families locally and create a lasting legacy for the town with the bird box trails.
“We actually have had so many bird boxes donated and made that we are looking to create a third trail which will increase the areas where people can keep an eye on the bird boxes and see the difference they can make to local wildlife. It has been really encouraging to see the interest in the biodiversity side of things.
“On behalf of Proactive Communities we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported the summer activities programme, including the Hillwalking Club, Rattray Tennis Club, John and Mary Carter from Bowland Trails, the team at Nest, Caroline Lawrie and Susan Guild, Jinty Smart and Chris Martin of Perth and Kinross Council.
“By working together to create a good flow of communication and understanding it will really help to keep our town going
It has been really encouraging to see the interest in the biodiversity side of things