Spring 2019 update from Appin Community Trust - the charitable arm of Appin Community Co-operative Ltd
This has been a busy-in-the-background quarter for the Trust. We had a welcome cash boost with £5000 Community Cooperative Shareholders Dividend donation to the Trust after a successful year in Port Appin Stores with a record turnover.
We have funds in place to donate over £2000 to the Skiff group to help to get the boat on the water; once we are satisfied that there are plenty of people planning to use it (which I'm sure there will be) we will release that money. This has been an excellent community project and we congratulate the small band of enthusiasts who are making this happen after 6 years.
We received a request from the Church to consider increasing our contribution to the cost of publishing "The Light" and we happily agreed to double our contribution for which the Treasurer expressed gratitude.
The Community Development Trust requested help with their administrative costs; after much discussion we agreed to give them a one off donation of £500.
Compassionate Communities Project
The Compassionate Communities project has agreed to modify plans for a Menshed to something more in keeping with the Community Garden, Playpark and Playing Field all of which will need storage space and shelter.
The Big Screen is now available to us and we are in discussions with Appin Village Hall to install it there as there is more space than in the Port Appin Hall. The internet rental charges are higher than we hoped so we will concentrate on supporting the Big Hall and giving support to Port Appin Hall to probably lobby for better mobile reception in Port Appin rather than burden the Hall with a £50 a month line rental for little usage.
Weekly Walking Group
The weekly Walking Group continues to attract new faces; We have now done 50 walks in the year with an average of 12-15 walkers per week enjoying company, exercise and sustenance in various local hostelries who have all been very welcoming. We meet every Wednesday at 11 a.m.in the Appin Community Car Park. Just come along if you are interested - anyone can do it (our oldest walker is 91) as we park support vehicles along the routes if possible.
Report by Iain McNicol, Chair, Appin Community Co-operative.