Author: Rick Dekker

The Back to School Uniform Bank was set up in 2015 by Sandra Douglas from East Renfrewshire, who was horrified to learn that her teacher daughter was buying Christmas gifts of school uniform items for some of her pupils. Her daughter explained that many rarely had anything new to wear and would be delighted with this.

Our Bank was the second one to set up. Now there are 20+ in Scotland, one in England, Wales and Ireland. Our aim is to provide new uniforms for children in low-income families to ensure they have the same pride and self-respect as their peers.

We take referrals from schools and health professionals and have so far provided uniforms (from underwear up to jackets, gym kits and schoolbags) all in a new bag, to children throughout Stirlingshire. We never know names, just sizes, but have heard lovely stories about excited kids (and their parents).

“Be Bold, Be Strong” – “Go in Joy”

All men and women are welcome to attend Guild meetings held in Kippen Church House:

14th February, 7.30 p.m.
“In Other Words”, Musical Evening

28th February, 2.00 p.m.
“Malawi Fruits”, Mr Russell Crawford, Visiting Guilds

3rd March, 2.00 p.m.
“World Day of Prayer”, Norrieston Church, Thornhill

14th March, 7.30 p.m.
“Caring for Mother Earth in Bolivia”
Ms Jo Dallas, Christian Aid

Saturday 18th March, 10.30 a.m. – 12 noon
Coffee Morning/Gift Day

Guild Projects:

This year Kippen Guild is supporting two Projects

• Haiti and Let’s Stick Together
• Care for the family. 

  Further information is available from
  

  Joanna M. McPhail 870681 or
  joanna.mcphail@btinternet.com

On Wednesday 14th December, the candlelit Kippen Church was packed once again for the 7th annual Kippen Community Christmas Concert. The audience enjoyed a fabulous evening of singing, music and a few carols all accompanied by mulled wine and mince pies.

A fantastic £1,107 was raised for Kippen Primary School funds and the donations from the mulled wine stall, totalling £250, were donated to the Over 60s Christmas Lunch.

A huge thanks to all who took part and to everyone who helped make the evening such a success once again.

Kippen Community Counil meets on the second Tuesday of every month, except January, July and August in the Reading Room.

Anyone with queries can come along and we will try to help.

Helen Wilson, Chair

The Kippen S.W.R.I. meets on the third Wednesday in every month, September to May in the Reading Room. We have a wide variety of meetings. Please come along and join us, new members welcome.

Helen Wilson

DRT (Demand Responsive Transport (‘Taxi’ Service)) is organised in rural areas where commercial or conventional bus operators are unable to provide bus services. You can use this service at the cost of a bus fare rather than a taxi fare. National Entitlement Cards (Bus Passes) are accepted. The DRT must be booked the day before you wish to travel.

At present residents from Kippen can use it if they wish to go directly to Fintry as Fintry has no bus service. Fintry residents can use it to Kippen or Arnprior to connect to the B12 service.

However as the B12 route is a commercial route the DRT cannot be used to directly connect to other villages. E.g. in order to access villages that have no bus service e.g. Gartmore, Drymen, Croftamie, Balmaha etc. at present you need to get a B12 bus from Kippen to Balfron having previously booked the DRT from Balfron to the village you wish to visit, returning by the same system.

One exception is from January 2017-you will be able to book the DRT between 7 – 9.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning from Kippen or Buchlyvie in order to connect to one of the 3 early buses leaving Balfron for Glasgow. This will help passengers who previously used the 9.00 leaving Stirling on a Saturday morning to go to Glasgow. After 9.30 a.m. and for your return journey you would revert to using the normal B12 timetable.

Numbers are:
DRT Line: 01786 404040 (9am to 3pm)

If Booking Directly with Companies:
Crescent Cabs _ _ _ _0800 756 3069
Drymen Taxis _ _ _ _ _ 01369 660 077

Open to new guests

A charity which provides all the benefits of baking and a blether to older people is keen to welcome more guests to its Kippen group.

Contact the Elderly has two groups in the village which meet once a month to enjoy a free afternoon tea.

Those aged 75 and over who live alone are welcomed to a volunteer host’s home one Sunday a month after being collected by a volunteer driver. The group will enjoy a couple of hours of tea, cake and company.

Morna O’May, Head of Service – Scotland at Contact the Elderly and a local Kippen resident, said:

“There is fantastic community spirit here in Kippen and everyone has a lovely time at the tea parties. For being a small village it’s great to have two groups and we know there are more people who would enjoy an afternoon with others who live locally; sharing stories over a nice cup of tea and tasty treats.”

Bunty became a guest of the charity in Kippen in 2015. She said:

“I’m so glad I’ve joined. I really look forward to my Sunday afternoons. When else would you get chauffeured from your door to the door of a wonderful hostess for a delicious afternoon tea and then chauffeured back home?

“The afternoons always fly by. There are discussions and people tell stories from their childhood. As soon as someone brings up a new subject it brings a memory to your mind and the conversation is once again overflowing.

“Although we all live in the same village, it’s not that easy to see one another as we’re not as able to get out and about anymore so this is a great chance to do just that.”

If you, or someone you know, would like to find out more about becoming a guest of Contact the Elderly then please contact Morna on 01786 871264 or morna.omay@contact-the-elderly.org.uk

We are closed at Easter time on Fri 25/3 and Mon 28/3. We don’t have dates for staff training days yet. The work for our loft conversion is scheduled to start in March and we hope to keep the surgery running as usual with minimal disruption.

The Over 60’s of Kippen are invited each year to a Christmas celebration in the village hall. This tradition has been running for many years, with several of our older villagers having attended for decades!

Cameron Skinner and staff provide a wonderful meal, and there is traditional entertainment and a bar.

The smooth running of this event relies on volunteers who help to serve the food, to drive folk to and from the hall, and of course wash the dishes at the end of the day. The playgroup always makes table decorations and we have been lucky to receive donations from many local group and businesses; McNicolls, the Kippen Scouts, the Kippen School Christmas concert, the Drama Club and Bowling Club, to name but a few. Lots of individuals have also donated to the collecting tins in local shops and we are really grateful to everyone who has helped support this event.

If you would like any further information or have any ideas you would like to share for future events,

Please contact Mary Lawson on 870202 or Debbie More on 871141

This year, the Parent Council has been raising funds for the school to buy electronic white boards for the classrooms. The current boards have reached the end of their lifespan and are no longer easy for pupils and teachers to use so they have been the priority for our fundraising efforts. Last year, the Parent Council raised enough to buy two new boards and the school bought a third but we still have two classrooms in need of the new equipment. Last year’s Community Christmas Concert funds were used to purchase the dragon memorial which pupils helped to design and create. This now has pride of place on the wall of the foyer at the school entrance.

The recent Christmas concert raised over £1,000 for the school, as well as £250 for the Over 60s Christmas lunch 2017, and these funds will go towards hopefully being able to purchase a new board for one of the remaining classes which is still using the old equipment. We have regular fundraising activities throughout the year such as the cafe at the street fayre and the Christmas concert but we also run different activities throughout the year. This year’s fundraising has included pupil Christmas cards, jumble sale and school tea towels. We are hoping to have an obstacle course mud run in Spring 2017. We would like to thank all the parents and the wider community who support the school fundraising events throughout the year, as it would not be possible for the classrooms to have this equipment without everyone’s contributions of time and money to our fundraising.