The fortunes of a day care centre for older people would be transformed if it won The Courier’s minibus competition.
The Deirdre Knight Centre in Forfar uses minibuses to collect its clients and last year it started a fundraising campaign to replace one of its vehicles, which is 13 years old.
Kathleen Fotheringham, centre manager, said winning The Courier competition would come at just the right time. She said: “Our committee decided to start the fundraising campaign last year. Replacing our 10-seater minibus will cost around £40,000, which includes the cost of chairlift access.
“It’s an 02 plate so it’s costing us a lot of money every year to keep it going.
“It was actually our service users who brought The Courier competition to our attention and said ‘why don’t we go for this’.
“We’ve been very busy collecting vouchers our clients have got all their families involved as well. We’re up to 150 tokens already.”
The Lour Road centre, which was established in 1987, provides 24 places every day for older people to meet and socialise, as well as receive help for their daily living needs. It provides a varied range of activities, from group games to baking and gardening. There are also afternoon dancing sessions and outings to local shops and attractions.There’s still time to register and get collecting our vouchers. Click here for more information“Our fundraising campaign is under way but we’ve only raised a few thousand at the moment,” Deirdre added.
“In the current climate, with funding cutbacks this is very difficult to raise money. Everyone is feeling the pinch.
“It would be huge for us to win the competition. It would mean we could spend that money on other things and upgrade other pieces of equipment. There are always things we can spend money on.
“The bigger, 17-seater minibus would help with efficiency in getting people to the centre as well. It would allow us to get out and about in the wider community.
“We are in the process of registering the centre to take more vulnerable elder people, with our service going from 24 to 26 per day. Winning this minibus would go a very, very long way in helping us to achieve this and be able to transport our service users safely.”