Community strength shines through after rallying to fund new minibus for Glenurquhart Shinty Club during Covid-19 pandemic
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
On the back of strenuous fund-raising and generous help from sponsors, Glenurquhart Shinty Club recently took possession of a new minibus.
The 17-seater Ford Transit High Top has now been decked out in the Glen’s traditional colours of black and red by Inverness firm Creative Sign and Print Ltd.
Glenurquhart credited the strength of their community with making the project possible during the pandemic, and they were humbled by the community response when it was decided to replace the old minibus which had lain unused throughout the pandemic.
“We pride ourselves on being a community club, and indeed in recognition of this the Camanachd Association awarded us the accolade of community club of the year thanks to our fundraising efforts for the local care centre and of course player Conor Golabek’s fantastic multiple marathon efforts on behalf of Highland Hospice,” said chairman Garry Mackintosh.
"Our efforts were greatly hindered by the fact that Covid restricted our ability to hold traditional fundraising activities like quizzes and sales of work.
"We secured substantial funding from local renewable energy organisation Soirbheas – and with help from our volunteers and local donors we were able to raise the sum of £33,600 which was needed to make the purchase.
"We are particularly grateful for former players who stepped forward and put their hands in their pockets to help get us over the line.
"With 110 youth members on our books and both men’s and women’s teams at every level in the sport, a minibus is essential for transporting our teams and truthfully too it will play its part to help the climate issue too- and this is what appealed to Soirbheas-in that it does away with the requirement for players to be taking strings of cars to away games.
"That can only be a good thing especially at a time when fuel prices look to be on a permanent rise.
"We’ll be eternally grateful to the people of the Glen for all their efforts and in these post Covid days we’ll be doing our utmost to repay them by our efforts to be successful on the field of play.”
