Community Affairs

Windfall for Kippen!

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1st Grant Application Deadline: 31st January 2018

Kippen is to receive around £22,000 per year for the next 20 or so years from Kingsburn Wind Energy Ltd, a company which has built a windfarm near the village, now known as Kingsburn Windfarm.  This money is intended for the benefit of the community members of Kippen and it is up to all of us to put it to good use.

We welcome suggestions of how to spend this money from any individuals or community groups living in Kippen.  Criteria for how this money should be spent are:

-It should benefit the community of Kippen or part of the community and should not be for the benefit of individuals;

  • in particular it should be used to promote health, public participation in sport and other recreation, education, citizenship, arts, culture, science or environmental improvement.

  • It should be spent on something that could not happen without this money, i.e. it should not replace fundraising which is already taking place;

  • It should not be used for general maintenance;

There are likely to be matchfunding criteria to be fulfilled.

So, we would love to hear about any ideas you have on how this money should be spent.

We have application forms for minor grants (up to £1500), medium-sized grants (£1500-£5000) and major grants (over £5000).  Applications will initially be made to Kippen Community Council, and then suitable applications will be passed on to the Windfarm Panel to assess which applications should be awarded a grant.  Application forms are available from Margaret Beaton on 870536.

The 1st deadline for us to receive completed grant applications is 31st January 2018, but if that does not give you enough time, don’t worry as there will be another round later in the year.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about this or if you would like an application form.

If we don’t use it, we lose it!

 

Community Affairs

The Wee Whist

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The Wee Whist takes place in the Reading Rooms on the second Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm. All are welcome – just turn up on the evening if you would like a game.

It is carrying on despite the sad departure of Bella Crawford.  Diane Loutit is running it at present.

 

Community Affairs

Flower Tubs

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Naomi and Fiona would like to thank the 1st Carse Cubs for their fantastic donation towards the upkeep of the tubs. The Cubs are a great bunch who regularly fundraise and donate to local organisations, and we were the lucky beneficiaries this time.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU.

And a big thank you to all the residents who are filling the collection box in McNicolls. A very healthy sum of £164 has been added to the reserves with these two donations.

 

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Community Affairs

1st Carse Cubs (Kippen)

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1st Carse Cubs (Kippen), will start back on Tuesday 23rd January. Hope everyone had a fun New Year and Santa was good to you!   After a very successful 1st term we are looking forward to a busy schedule running up to Spring.

Our first outdoor camping experience was held on the 30th September at the Barrwood Scout campsite, on the road to Denny. Everyone had loads of fun; and the plan is to have another before the end of the school year.

Our Bonfire night, last year, was held on Tuesday 7th November at the Football Pitch. This was our big fund-raising event and was extremely successful again. Thank you for your support. It’s becoming a favourite event on the village calendar.

We raised more than £900 and were able to significantly help local charities and organisations. We donated money to the Village Hall, the Sports Field Development Fund, the Reading Rooms garden and we also gave money to the ladies who look after the flower pots in the village. We were going to give a donation to the Woodland Group, however, having talked to them we decided that the “Clubs” will spend that money on further renovation of the old coupe area. We will be able to clear out the bases of the concrete recycling bins that are there, as we found these to be ideal locations for the cubs to practice their camp fire building and marshmallow cooking. We are also planning to create more accessible paths and routes into this zone.

These activities and adventures that your children are having at their own back door do not happen without parental support. I am very lucky to be helped and supported by a likeminded group of guys. Our motto is, “If we’re having fun then so are the kids”. If anyone out there would like to come along and help we’d be delighted to have you.

The Beaver Colony in Gargunnock has now moved to Kippen and is currently being run by Annabel Gaywood and Ellen Larsen Davidson (the minister).

Please come along and help, it really can be fun, and your local pack does need you!

You can contact either myself, Derek Shanks, or Cameron Skinner or via email us at – 1stcarsecubs@mail.com or Annabel and Ellen individually.

Community Affairs

Woodland Group

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The Annual General Meeting of the Kippen Community Woodland Group was held in November and plans for 2018 were discussed.

The main focus of our activity will be the woodland work mornings, held on the first Sunday of each month, excluding January and July. In addition to using the work mornings keeping the paths clear and well-drained, in line with the management plan for the wood, we shall be clearing saplings at the East end of the pond so that there is space to deposit dredged material when we start on the next 5 yearly cycle of pond clearance – hopefully Autumn 2018 subject to obtaining funding.

Other work planned for 2018 includes:

  • Thinning trees along the southern edge of the wood with help from Wallis Weir;
  • Assessing the condition of nesting boxes in the wood with a view to adding new nest boxes made by the 1st Carse Cubs and possibly also the Primary School;
  • Making some picnic benches for the old coup area;
  • Facilitating greater use of Burnside wood by Kippen Primary School; and
  • Applying for grants to provide an alternative path up the Black Brae.

For those who were disappointed by the absence of a Woodland Group stall at the Christmas market, you will be pleased to learn that we are planning to have a stall this year and to sell some special edition Christmas cards to mark our 20th year. We would like to invite all photographers to submit wintry Kippen scenes for potential use on these cards to kippenwoodlandgroup@gmail.com by the end of March 2018. We shall then select the best photographs and make contact with the person submitting to establish how best to acknowledge them.

Paula Watson

 

Events

Classics at Kippen

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Five years ago, I had an idea, and, like all ideas, it can be a bit scary wondering if it will work. Then, like all ideas which do work, it becomes scary when they grow arms and legs! Such is the story of “Classics at Kippen.” I’m not sure where all my ideas come from, but I think this idea has worked and it certainly has grown arms and legs!

The ethos of “Classics at Kippen” is threefold; to provide a lovely community event of high class music making in our beautiful Parish Church, to raise money for charity and to provide a much-needed performing platform for my young students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. At this early stage in their careers, as they start out in this tough profession, these very talented young musicians really need to try out their repertoire, to practise their developing technique, and to discover and refine their own performing and musical identities in a real live performance situation. These opportunities are few and far between, so a chance like this is grabbed with both hands by them all, and you, our audience, in return reap the benefit of hearing fresh young talent. Many of the singers and pianists you have already heard are now forging successful careers at Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Opera de Lyons, Frankfurt Opera and Chatelet Opera in Paris to name but a few. You heard them in Kippen first!!

These concerts are very dear to my heart because “back in the day” in the 80’s and 90’s, as a singer myself, I gave several recitals in the Church, which also raised money for the Kippen Parish Church and Erskine and, way back in the days of the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s my grandmother, Helen McCowan of Brig o’ Frew Farm, was greatly involved in all things musical in Kippen!

Since 2012 we have had five concerts; an opera gala, an evening of song, a presentation of “Words and Music from the Somme” (to commemorate the centenaries of the Battle of the Somme, and Erskine) and two “Raucous Rossini” operas. We have raised around £20,000 for charity – Crossroads, Kippen Parish Church and Erskine being our beneficiaries to date. I’m amazed. I think we may have had our last “Raucous Rossini” performance but I hope to put on another concert in the not too distant future with some of my newest and exciting young singers who, I think, have a great future ahead of them. Please contact me fergusonk@btinternet.com if you would like to be on our mailing list for information of future events

These events don’t just happen and I’m incredibly grateful and hugely indebted to all who help behind the scenes. Thank you so much to all our various sponsors whose generous donations pay for some expenses, to all who help with the publicity, who leaflet the village, set up the “stage” and clear up afterwards, hand out programmes and wine on the night, collect students from the train, offer overnight hospitality and, last but certainly not least, my wonderful cooks who turn up with the most delicious hot meals which the students devour as if they hadn’t eaten for days! Students will do most things for food! Everyone gives freely, as do the students, and they all love coming out to Kippen for some TLC in the country.

My next task, I think, may be to try and find some funding to buy staging which could be generally used for any performances in the village. At the moment we borrow from the church of the Holyrude in Stirling at no charge! It is a bit of a hassle so it would be great to have our own. Also, if anyone knows anything about lighting that could also be really helpful! Not my field of expertise!

Thanks to your generosity and support, “Classics at Kippen” is alive and well in this tough economic climate for the arts. Kippen truly is a “giving village”. Thank you all for digging deep to support us and for turning up “on the night” which is always a huge relief to me! Your support and encouragement is greatly appreciated. Watch this space for our next event! “If music is the food of love play on, give me excess of it”.

Kath Ferguson

Events

Vintage Market

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The second Vintage Market took place in the Village Hall on 22 October, with a whole lot of new stalls and their enthusiastic vendors, selling quirky and unique items.

We faced some competition from the Great Pumpkin Event in Arnprior, but still had good sales and donations at the door of £165, for the Village Hall Fund. Thank you to everyone who took a stall or emptied their purse on the day.

It was great fun again, but Christine and I have regretfully decided not to organise another Vintage Market in 2018. If you, or anyone you know, would like to take it on, we are happy to pass on our vast (!) store of knowledge – just get in touch.

Sue Bryans (sue.bryans@btinternet.com)

Events

Arnprior Pumpkins

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Situated just outside Kippen is Arnprior Farm, the location of Arnprior Pumpkins, which last year broke all records when they held their annual pick-your-own event.  On the day we arrived, it was dry but the field with the pumpkins was full of mud – mud like we’d never seen before!   Interestingly, the field was also full of happy children literally wallowing in said mud!  There was a great atmosphere, but you could tell that Duncan and Rebecca McEwen were surprised by the volume of visitors they had attracted.

We managed to grab them for a brief chat and they explained that this was their third year and the event just keeps growing and growing.  We spoke to several folks who had driven for miles to visit including one family who had come from Rothesay and another from Oban!

Of course, the success of the social media campaign had a down side.  The volume of traffic almost overwhelmed the village, but we are told that plans are already afoot for more traffic control and parking this year.

It’s great to be able to report on a story like this and we wish them continued success including their Arnprior Lambing which, we hear, is their next venture.

Alison Bradley