MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

The staff at BHC Machars, along with the Area Partnership wish you all a 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We will update you with all the exciting developments when we return to the office on

January 4th

Volunteers' Christmas Celebration

BHC Volunteers had a morning of merriment and mirth in the Building Healthy Communities Office to celebrate and thank the volunteers for all their efforts.

Silly games and a quiz as well as a small buffet all went down well. The quiz was fiercely competitive thanks to Lesley's input!

Fun times for all and everyone was looking forward to the challenges of 2017!!

Lifelong Commitment to Volunteering Award

Last Thursday at the Machars Area Partnership for Building Healthy Communities A.G.M., at the end of the official proceedings, an award for Lifelong Commitment to Volunteering was made to David Hirst.

David has been involved with Building Healthy Communities for over 10 years and has been running Heartstart courses as a volunteer for even longer. Over the years he has trained over 2300  people in CPR in the Wigtownshire as well as being an active member and Treasurer of the Machars Area Partnership.

Below, is David receiving his award from Nathalie, Community Health Development Worker for BHC Machars.

Isle of Whithorn Youth Group - Food Challenge!

Inspired by "I'm a Celebrity" The young people at the Isle of Whithorn Youth Group had asked for their own "Food Challenge".

Various foods were made available ranging from jellied worms and lizards tails (spaghetti in jelly and Gherkins) to stinky fish and seaweed (anchovies and battered seaweed)

The group were split into 2 teams and had a lucky dip to choose their food challenge.

As can be seen, not everyone enjoyed the taste!!!

The young people attempted most of the 16 dishes prepared for them, some more challenging than others, and had a great evening!!

The winning team chose the theme of the next cooking session which will be a healthy Chinese dish!!

Well done everyone!!

Scrabble4Fun

Tomorrow see the start of the new BHC Scrabble4Fun Initiative.

The first community in the Machars to benefit from the fun and games is Port William and the event kicks off at 10.00am at "The View" Port William.

Please see poster below for more details.

Isle of Whithorn Art Group

The group meet every Wednesday at St Ninians Hall in the Isle of Whithorn from 

12.30 until 3pm.

New members are always welcome where they can learn and share their skills. 

This is a vibrant group of people who get together for a social chat whilst relaxing and partaking of their favourite arts and crafts.

 Here are a couple of paintings recently completed. For further details, 

contact BHC on: 01988 501111

Jills in the Community

The Jills have been busy in the last couple of weeks re-decorating a hall stairs and landing in the community.

As can be seen from the photos, the colour change from chocolate to cream proved a 3 coat affair but was completed with skill and dedication.

Well done to Tracey, Claire and Mary for all their efforts.

New tasks from people in need will be considered. If interested in how the Jills can help you, contact the office on:

01988 501111

Scrabble 4 Fun

The Machars Area Partnership for Building Healthy Communities (MAP) are organising a series of Scrabble groups around the Machars, starting on Thursday 24^th November from  10.00 to 12.00 at The View, Port William and every week thereafter (apart from a break for Christmas).

Everyone is very welcome, whether they are experienced players or absolute first timers, these are intended to be social, fun, events where they can have a not too serious game, a good blether, a cuppa and maybe stay on for lunch afterwards.

MAP have been very fortunate in being sponsored by Mattel, the distributors of Scrabble, who have donated 24 Scrabble sets worth nearly £500, completely free of charge.  Attendance is free of charge and people will be there to guide participants through the way of playing. MAP are also very grateful to PIRSAC for allowing the use of The View as a venue.

In the coming weeks, further groups will be started in Wigtown, Glentrool, Newton Stewart, Whithorn and the Isle of Whithorn and if anyone wants further details, they should contact Building Healthy Communities on 01988 501111.

BHC Regular Activities in the Machars

BHC Machars run Initiatives and Activities on a regular basis in the area. The Activities that are currently running and an explanation of each can be viewed by clicking HERE.

If you have any queries about these, or any other activities, please contact the office on 01988 501111

TCAT and Move More programmes

The TCAT (Transforming Care after Treatment) and Move More programmes are run as part of Building Healthy Communities, in partnership with Macmillan, across the region and offers support to anyone affected by cancer including family members and carers.

To read more about this new initiative and get involved, click on the following links:

To find out about the TCAT programme  click here

To find out about the Move More programme, click here

To view the referral form and take part, click here.

Hard of Hearing Newsletter

To view and read the latest Newsletter from the Hard of Hearing Group in Dumfries and Galloway, please click HERE

Thank You Cafe - Port William School

The pupils in P6 and P7 at Port William School opened their "Thank You Cafe" on Wednesday afternoon to thank all the people who have helped make the school such a success.

The Jills of all Trades were invited after their renovation of the outside playground seating areas and fencing.

The children did a wonderful job of planning a menu, sourcing the ingredients then cooking and serving food to over 25 people who attended.

The food was DELICIOUS and the service by the pupils was Excellent!! 

Thanks very much for the invite!!

Summer Programme - Volunteer Awards

Today, most of the 23 young people who volunteered for this year's summer programme organised by CLD and supported by BHC, were awarded their Saltire awards for volunteering as well as recognising the fact that they all were successful in obtaining their SQA level 3 in "Preparing to Volunteer"

The awards were presented by Councillor Ian Dick at the celebratory lunch at Agnew Park Stranraer.

Well done to all the young people. Some built up over 200 hours of volunteering from April to September this year!!

First Christmas Fayre - Glentrool

Christmas Fayre time is looming closer, and here is the first of them!!

If you have time, pay Glentrool a visit - well worthwhile.

Jills of all Trades in the Community

On Saturday, the Jills and a few other helpers went back to Port William School to complete the painting of the children's outside play areas and fencing.


On what was a very cold but dry day, this was successfully completed as can be seen by the photos.

 

Thanks to Nathalie and Samantha, (Honorary Jills) for their assistance on the day!!
This was a great community project to get involved in and if there are other community groups or individuals who could benefit from the skills of the Jills of all Trades, please contact:
Building Healthy Communities on 01988 501111

Isle of Whithorn Arts Group

The group continues to flourish with a large turnout on a weekly basis.

This is a very friendly and talented group of individuals who all have different skills and share these with the group. New members are always welcome.

For further info please contact:

Building Healthy Communities on

01988 501111

Jills of all Trades

In the next few weeks, one of the "Jills of all Trades" is planning on overhauling their garden to make the strawberry patches more accessible. This will involves making boxes and a new pathway across the ever expanding patch. The Jills will be making the boxes over the coming weeks.

This is what the garden looks like now!! Anyone for strawberries???

Monday Club Activities

During the past month, The Monday club have had many different activities taking place at Penninghame Church Hall.


Healthy Eating:

Tables ready for cooking

The presentation

Dave from Building Healthy Communities gave a presentation on eating healthily followed by an opportunity for all the group to cook a simple yet healthy lunch.

To see the presentation on Healthy Eating, click HERE

It was a great session with everyone taking home their food to eat for Lunch.

Quiz:

At the beginning of the Month, Building Healthy Communities wrote and presided over a fun quiz for everyone. Questions ranging from Which is the Largest Loch in Scotland? to trying to recognise famous people from their young photographs, kept everyone amused.

There was a winning team, but everyone went away with a small bag of fruit for their efforts.

Quote from a service user:

"Great fun and not too competitive"

Monday Club Trip:

At the end of the August, The members took a trip to Soleburn Garden Centre at Leswalt. They all had a good time and are looking forward to their next outing.

MoveMore:

Christine, lead volunteer for Building Healthy Communities and MoveMore gave a passionate talk to the group as to what is involved with this project and how it helps and enhances peoples lives following cancer.

It has been a busy time. The Monday club meets twice a month at Penninghame Church Hall, from 10 to 12. The next meeting is on Monday 10th October.

Isle of Whithorn Arts Group

The Isle of Whithorn Arts Group, which is supported by Building Healthy Communities in the Machars, is an inclusive, friendly and welcoming group with interests in various creative arts and with varying levels of skills which we are happy to share.  They meet every Wednesday at St Ninian's Hall, Isle of Whithorn, between 12.30pm and 3pm.

Below, please look at some of the work by members of the group.

 

 

 

You can follow the group which have their own facebook page on:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1820183831546620/

Kath Elwood - Retirement

At the beginning of September, there was a BHC get together to celebrate the retirement and thank Kath for all her hard work as the administrator for the BHC Regional Team.

Presentations of a variety of gifts were made and CAKE was eaten!!

Kath had been working since the inception of BHC and was the "Go To" person for any queries that we had. her methodical approach to tasks will be sadly missed and we all wish her all the best and a happy and healthy retirement.

Thanks Kath....We will all miss you!

Willie Stevenson - Upper Nithsdale

Back in the summer, there was a Memorial Lunch held at The Building Healthy Communities Office in Upper Nithsdale to celebrate and remember Willie Stevenson.

Willie had been the Chairperson of BHC Upper Nithsdale for a number of years and many people in the community as well as BHC staff from across the region, turned up to remember and celebrate all that Willie had contributed to the community.

A Plaque had been commissioned and this will be placed on the wall in the office.

Thanks Willie for all your input! You are sadly missed.

Jills in the Community - Port William School

Following the painting of the outdoor equipment at Port William School, BHC received a lovely email from the children of P6&7 which is included below:

We are the children from Primary 6/7 and we have been asked to write, on behalf of Port William Primary School staff and children, to thank you, and your team, for painting and sprucing up our outdoor classrooms.  They look brand new and, to be honest, most of us didn't even notice the paint on the floor and those of us who did thought it brightened up the floor! 

We  very much appreciate you and your team giving up your own time to make our playground look better. 

We would love for you to come back and paint the fencing and wonder if you know when this might be.  Also, do we need to order more paint for you?

Please will you pass on our grateful thanks to 'the Jills'.   We agree with you that their painting skills are awesome!

Thank you also to you, Mr Groves.  Your organising skills and painting skills are awesome too!

We think that the photos are great and have printed them out to put on a display in school.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Yours sincerely

Primary 6/7 pupils ... and Mrs Pomfret!

The Jills are now looking at a date to complete the fencing for the School. This will probably be in October. Well done "Jills" another great job!!

Summer Programme Barbeque

On a damp drizzly day, the BHC team prepared, cooked and served a BBQ for those young people moving from P7 to Douglas Ewart High School. The event was well supported by volunteers and there were plenty of activities on offer.

 

Such a shame about the weather, but the food went down a treat!!

Out & About - "A Learning Resource"

A learning resource (report) about how one project has used social prescribing.

click here to view report

Summer Programme - Young master chef

As part of the CLD summer programme that ran at the end of July, BHC were involved in the young Masterchef class that ran in Stranraer.

This was a very busy session with 13 participants where they all had the opportunity to prepare and cook one of 4 recipes from scratch.

On offer were Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken fajitas, Chicken Risotto and Chicken Curry. All the young people, aged from 11 - 18, completed the task and were happy with their results.

Well done to all involved.

Jills of all Trades in the Community - Port William School

The Jills Team have been exceedingly busy during July, spending 4 days at Port William School repairing and re-painting the outside covered play areas for the children.












The weather was relatively kind for the week and the preparing and painting took the full 4 days.

Everyone gave of their best and the results were really good with a slight colour change and therefore, much brighter and more attractive areas for the children to sit during their breaks.

All the Jills thoroughly enjoyed the week, hard work, but relaxing and rewarding.

Massive thanks to Tracey, Mary, Claire and Muthoni for all their hard work!!
We will be returning to Port William to paint the fencing around the Nursery in the near future.