Donations
From the family of the Late James Mundy of New Pitsligo £250, (b) From the 50th birthday party of Colin Burgess of Ellon (whose mother is a GCRA member) £750 as reported in the P&J of 13th July (c) From Bill Law of the Hopeville Easy Class £200 from his Diamond Wedding celebration. The Board of GCRA wish to acknowledge each of those donations with expressions of our most sincere gratitude.
News
John Carty and his wife who are members of Kay Robb’s Beacon class are relocating to Livingstone .To mark John’s 12-year membership of GCRA, there was a presentation with a unique crafted plaque. Kay’s Beacon classes have an extremely strong social aspect and have used this over the years to contribute significantly to GCRA. Well done John, Kay and the folks at the Beacon.
You are never too old to learn is obviously the motto of Anne Coutts who is a new member in Elaine Buchan’s class at Alford. Anne was delighted to get a chance to do some exercise on one of the bikes. At the youthful age of 86 it was the first time in her life that she had ever been on any kind of bike. Anne, there’s plenty of life after 40 .Well done and stick at it from young Bert.
Cala Homes presentation of a new Defibrillator. Late last year we were delighted to receive a grant of £990 from Cala Homes to buy a new defibrillator. We duly purchased the latest Cardiac Science G5 Powerheart Automatic Defibrillator, which is TOTALLY automatic. As with our older G3 models it gives precise voice instructions of what to do in a rescue situation, but in this case there is no Red button to administer a shock...it decides when a shock is necessary and delivers it by itself, after giving due notice to the operator to keep back and not to touch the patient. The Defibrillator was formally presented to GCRA at a small ceremony at Kay Robb’s Beacon class on the morning of 5th August by Steve Jarvie, Construction Director of Cala Homes.
Fund Raising
Pittodrie Street Collection: On a blustery and unseasonably cool evening on 12th May 8 stalwarts of GCRA turned out to shake their collection cans in the roads outside Pittodrie stadium at the folks attending the football match . A total of £222.61 was collected and our thanks go to all who braved a chilly spring evening to help boost our funds.
The West Highland Way Walk: Starting on Tuesday 8th June from Milngavie, West of Glasgow, GCRA Instructor, Maureen-Anne Gardiner with class members John Mathieson (Kemnay) and George Mackie (Alford) completed the 100 miles of the West Highland way, finishing in Fort William on Saturday 12th June. To get there the intrepid trio had to deal with rain, mist, heat, blisters, ascents, descents and the terror of the infamous West Highland midges at their fiercest. But they prevailed and were joined every evening by Bert & Muriel Lyon who were driving the roads as their back-up team. The sponsorship funds raised were £1411. But with more than 50% of the sponsorship being gift-aided the grand total is likely to exceed £1600. Words alone can’t express the gratitude of the GCRA Board in this venture to help GCRA. Well done to all involved.
Philip Clarke’s There & Back Cycle challenge: Philip has now completed 4 of his 8 selected mountain road passes where he cycles across the pass, turns round and cycles back again. Apart from the initial £500 of sponsorship which he has been promised by the Inverurie Rotary Club, he has raised another £190 on the Just Giving site. For those interested in supporting Philip the Just Giving page is located at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gcraphilip.