Day: June 6, 2013

MoonWalk’s Psychedelic Extravaganza this Saturday

The streets of Edinburgh will be transported back to the Swinging Sixties this Saturday night!  After months of training, thousands of women and men wearing brightly decorated psychedelic bras will Power Walk through the streets of the capital at midnight …

Organised by grant-making breast cancer charity Walk the Walk, The MoonWalk has raised in excess of £15.5 million since 2006, with most of the money being granted in Scotland, to help improve the lives of people with cancer.

This year’s theme is “Psychedelic Extravaganza”, where anything groovy goes, as long as it’s bright and bold – a Magical Mystery Tour from the Swinging Sixties, full of Flower Power!

The walkers will start their amazing challenges from Walk the Walk’s huge Pink Tent at its new venue of Leith Links. Uniting against breast cancer, many iconic buildings across the city will be lit pink on the night, giving the walkers a huge collective hug. Amongst others, Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Yacht Britannia and Lloyds on The Mound will all be basking in a pink glow!

The charity’s fantastic walkers will be taking on two new Power Walking challenges this year. Anyone aged ten and over can do the quarter marathon New Moon (6.55 miles). For those seeking an extreme challenge, Walk the Walk has introduced the double marathon Over the Moon (52.4 miles). The famous Half Moon (13.1 miles) and Full Moon (26.2 miles) challenges are both still available.

STV Entertainment correspondent Laura Boyd will be taking on the Full Moon – Laura was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009  and uses Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow, which is funded by Walk the Walk. Also walking are singer/songwriter Carrie Mac, as well as the editor of Good Housekeeping Magazine Lindsay Nicholson, on the second leg of her 3 Land Challenge, which also includes MoonWalks in London and Iceland.

Five MSP’s have signed up for The New Moon – Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton), Sarah Boyack (Lothian), Siobhan McMahon (Central Scotland), Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) and Drew Smith (Glasgow).

Entries for all the walking challenges are now closed, but Walk the Walk still wants more volunteers to sign up – a thousand are needed to help the event run smoothly.

There’s a variety of roles available, including route marshall, cycle marshall, water crew, clean and recycle team, and directional team (helping direct walkers, and other jobs on The MoonWalk City site).

To sign up as a volunteer for The MoonWalk Edinburgh Scotland please click here

Broughton High School thanks community partners

cakes

Broughton High School staged a showcase event yesterday to thank agencies, organisations and businesses that have supported Broughton pupils over the last year. 

Broughton’s Partnership Group was only established last year but the group has already built a considerable support network among voluntary sector community organisations, public bodies and private sector companies – many of whom were represented at the showcase event alongside Broughton staff and membes of the school’s Parent Council.

These included – and this is far from an exhaustive list – Ernst and Young, Pilton Community Health Project’s counselling service, Community Learning and Development, Active Schools, Police Scotland, Red Cross, Screen Education Edinburgh, Lyceum Theatre Company, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Out of the Blue, Western General Hospital, Science Festival, Standard Life, Scottish Business in the Community, Co-operation Education Trust Scotland, Catherine Wheels Theatre Company … you’ll get the picture!

The event was held to show how pupils benefit from the many business and support partnerships that Broughton are already involved with, and also to highlight how this has positive benefits for both the partners themselves, school pupils and the wider community.

In a short film, pupils told how the support of external partners has had a positive impact on their lives – whether through increasing self-esteem and self-confidence or by offering new and different opportunities and learning new skills.

Broughton’s Head Teacher John Wilson summed up: “We’re now seeing a variety of services centred around the school – far more than used to be the case. School and education is no longer just about the basics, teaching pupils to read and write – there are now so many other elements to be considered.

“Because of that huge diversity, where once we could look at education as a triangle – with the school, the parents and the pupil as the three sides – the triangle has had to develop a fourth side. It’s become a rectangle; partnerships have become that fourth side. As the inspiration film has shown, your support and encouragement has made such a huge difference to these young people. Thank you”.

And thank you, too, to the Health and Food Technology pupils who provided the freshly baked scones, shortbread and cakes for the showcase event!

BroughtonHS

 

 

 

Citadel double bill for Leith Festival

citadelCitadel Arts Group is presenting a double bill of environmentally friendly plays during Leith Festival, which gets underway this weekend.

‘The Junk Food Vampire’ which features four Leith school pupils who delighted audiences in Citadel’s 2012 Leith Festival show, and ‘Granny was a Rock Star’ which uses humour, pathos and song to drive home the importance of recycling and explores cross generation friendship between two Leith teenagers and the older lady whose veggies they were trying to nick!

Two shows for all the family for the price of one!

Venue: The Granary, The Shore, Leith

Dates: Wed 12 June 7.30pm, Fri 14 June 2pm and Sat 15 June 7.30pm

The Granary are offering a 20% meal deal to our ticket holders so why not make it a night out with a healthy meal – no junk food of course!

Tickets@ £7/£5 from lizhare@blueyonder.co.uk or 0131 337 8570

LeithFestival

City primary schools on their marks for sports event

ActiveMore than 1,000 primary school pupils will compete in one of the biggest ever school sports events in Edinburgh next week. The P6 pupils are taking part in the Games @ THE HUB event at Forrester High School Community Sports Hub next Wednesday (12 June).

Clyde, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games mascot, will also be making an appearance at the start of the event to welcome all the pupils.

This is the first event of its kind delivered by Active Schools and its purpose is to promote participation in sport in the build-up to Glasgow 2014. Pupils will compete in ten different sports: hockey, football, rugby, basketball, netball, gymnastics, cricket, volleyball, boccia and  tennis.

As well as the pupils taking part over fifty volunteers from the Young Ambassador programme – which is delivered by sportscotland in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust – and school sports leaders from across the city will be lending a hand to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day.

Jodi McGinty, a platinum Young Ambassador and torch bearer at the Olympics, will be presenting the shields to the winning teams. Jodi is also on the Young People’s Sport Panel, which is led by sportscotland in partnership with Young Scot.

One of the events is the Paralympic Sport Boccia which 10 of the teams will be trying out. Boccia is related to bowls and was originally designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now includes athletes with other disabilities.

Primary schools will send teams of 10 P6 pupils, both boys and girls, to take part in a competitive session in the morning and then a participative event in the afternoon. These sessions will be run by Children & Families’ Sports Development Officers, National Governing Bodies and local community clubs.

Active Schools hope this will be the start of an annual event. Each year, primary schools across the city will be able to take part in the competitive session of each sport where the winner will be presented with a shield.

Catherine_Fullerton_7_200x200[1]

Councillor Cathy Fullerton, Vice Convener for Education (pictured above), said: “Glasgow 2014 presents us with a fantastic opportunity to promote a variety of sports across the Capital and this event is a great way of promoting this. I’m going along on the day to see everyone taking part and am delighted that so many primary school pupils are getting the opportunity to experience Games @ THE HUB.

“The facilities at Forrester/St Augustine’s are second to none and I know everyone will have a great time. Hopefully many of the children will be inspired to take up some of the sports outside of school and I want to thank everyone involved especially all the volunteers.”

Jacqueline Lynn, sportscotland’s Head of School and Community Sport, said: “The Games @ THE HUB event is sure to be an action-packed day of sport and physical activity and it will by wonderful to see so many pupils taking part.

“We are committed at sportscotland to increasing the opportunities for children and young people to participate in school sport, and significant progress is being made through our Active Schools Network and Community Sport Hub initiative. The Active Schools team in Edinburgh has done an excellent job in organising this event and we commend them for their efforts.”

 

Women city councillors unite to walk the Moonwalk

Lesley Hinds Ward 5 Inverleith Ward

This Saturday I will be participating in the MoonWalk. There is a cross party group of women Councillors walking as a team and we have created an online Fundraising Page for The MoonWalk Edinburgh Scotland 2013.

To show your support for this effort and raise funding for breast cancer in Scotland, please donate at

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/strident

This Team Web Page will be active until 29 Oct 13.

Thank you for uniting against breast cancer

With good wishes and good health,

Lesley Hinds

Sing out with The Piltones!

Listen to this!!   ‘take a look‘

This song was written by a group of local women who sing at the PCHP project.  It is performed by them and a group of P7 girls from Granton Primary School.

They have formed a group ‘The Piltones’ that anyone can join.  They meet on a Tuesday morning from 9.30 – 11 to sing their favourite songs and have a chat.  Anyone can jon – get in touch on 0131 551 1671

http://www.pchp.org.uk/the-piltones/

Info:  Ann Confrey

Have your say on media coverage of violence against women

Ever wanted to have your say and help improve the media (and get paid for it)? Can you offer advice and/or innovative ideas about a fair media?

Well here is your chance to have your voice heard! Zero Tolerance are conducting focus groups to try and improve media coverage of violence against women and we want to hear your opinion, suggestions and what you’ve always wanted to say but never had the chance to.

If you are 18+ and willing to get involved, or to find out more, just drop us an email to:

alessia.tranchese.zt@gmail.com or info@zerotolerance.org.uk)

or visit http://zerotolerance.org.uk/news/1/249

Alternatively, you can reach us by calling 0131 248 2410. We look forward to hearing from you!

ZeroTolerance

Mark Lazarowicz praises volunteers

Mark_Lazarowicz[1]

Mark Lazarowicz MP has expressed support for volunteers working in Edinburgh North and Leith as part of this year’s Volunteers’ Week. 

Volunteers’ Week is a UK-wide week to celebrate the work of millions of volunteers who give up their time to help others. You can find out more about UK Volunteers week at http://volunteersweek.org/

Mark said: “Volunteers are crucial to so many organisations in our community. Their work helps make our society a better place, and volunteers themselves also benefit tremendously from the experience – learning new skills, getting back into paid work, improving physical or mental well-being, or simply meeting interesting people and having fun.

“A good example of the importance of volunteers will be seen over the next weekend during the Leith Festival. On Leith Gala Day in particular, on Leith Links from 11 am on Saturday (8 June), hundreds of local volunteers will be showing the work of their organisation to the local community – publicising their work, raising funds, recruiting more volunteers, and generally meeting the public.”

The most popular fields for regular volunteers are sports and exercise; hobbies, recreation, arts and social clubs and religion.

During Volunteers’ Week organisations will be taking the opportunity to recognise the contribution of their volunteers through holding awards ceremonies, recruitment fairs, celebration events, training opportunities and volunteer taster sessions.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many organisations, and work in communities in organisations such as sports clubs, community groups and museums, as well as public sector bodies, schools and hospitals.

Muirhouse Millennium Centre’s Cathy Ahmed and North Edinburgh TimeBank were among the volunteers recognised at a City Chambers reception hosted by Lord Provost Cllr Donald Wilson last night. Congratulations to you all!

Timebank Choir in fine voice at the City Chambers PIC: Vicki Redpath
Timebank Choir in fine voice at the City Chambers
PIC: Vicki Redpath

 

Johnstone welcomes debate on ‘hidden GM’

AlisonJohnstoneMSPGreen MSP Alison Johnstone is welcoming confirmation from the Scottish Government that it intends to hold a debate in parliament on food labelling, amid growing concerns about GM materials hidden in everyday foods.

Alison recently tabled a motion in parliament highlighting the fact that major supermarkets have scrapped policies that prevented animals fed on genetically-modified crops reaching the shelves.

In a parliamentary answer to Alison received yesterday (5 June) the environment minister admits the issue is not covered by labelling regulations, which means customers have no idea if the products they’re buying have been fed on GM feeds.

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and food spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said: “While a debate on labelling is welcome it’s a shame it won’t happen till September at the earliest. This is an important consumer issue; there is increasing interest in where our food comes from and what it contains.

“A recent Food Standards Agency survey found 67 per cent of consumers want meat, eggs and dairy labelled to show whether they come from animals fed on GM feed. I urge the Scottish Government to challenge the retailers to improve their labelling so that we can at least choose not to buy these products.”