Inverness High School pupils save the day for organisers of city candlelit vigil marking first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine
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Pupils at an Inverness school have stepped in to ensure a poignant candlelit vigil marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine goes ahead in Inverness tonight.
Highlands for Ukraine organised the special event marking one year of war and resistance by Ukraine at Queen’s Park, beside Inverness Leisure off Glenurquhart Road.
The event will begin at 7.30pm this evening, with the charity having invited all 750 Ukrainian refugees currently taking refuge in the Highlands to attend.
Local people are also invited to turn out in numbers to support their new Ukrainian neighbours, with Drew Hendry MP and Ukrainian consul from Dnipro Oleg Vasylenko set to speak at the event.
A thousand candles will be available for the adults taking part, while children will be asked to shine mobile phone torches.
But the charity seemed to have hit a major snag when the aluminium protection discs they ordered for the candles failed to arrive in time.
Luckily for the charity, staff and pupils at Inverness High School stepped in to salvage the situation, and keep everyone safe from dripping wax, after coming up with a plan to create the discs themselves.
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Helen MacRae, one of the charity’s organisers, explained: “It’s the usual difficulty of trying to get something delivered to the Highlands by a national courier.
“It seems as if it could soon be easier to get to Mars than to send a parcel safely to Inverness.
“Even though we paid an extortionate additional delivery charge to guarantee the discs got here by yesterday, they didn’t arrive.
“This event in support of local Ukrainians, on the first anniversary of the invasion, was just too important to cancel.
“We can’t thank pupils and staff at Inverness High School enough for keeping everyone safe and ensuring this significant, high-profile event didn’t have to be cancelled at the very last minute.”
Other local companies that helped save the day were James Dow Stationers, with Andrew Still providing the raw materials for the pupils to work with.
Inverness Taxis driver Barry Grant rushed them to the High School for the last-minute project before the school closed for the day at lunchtime.
