Supporting disabled people to have an ordinary life
Winter Newsletter 2019
Featuring our Club Highlights of the Year!
The biggest highlight of our year would be our name change from
Disability Shetland to Ability Shetland following the AGM. Team leader
Stephanie Bain said that they had felt that their previous name had
focused on what people could
not do, rather than what they
could, and that they wanted
to now “focus on the abilities
of people in our community.
We wanted to take our time
with this to get it right which is
why we amended our logo
last year to have a cross
through the ‘Dis’”.
Written and edited by Andy Anderson
THE NORTH ISLES
Unst Saturday Club really made the most of the good weather this year and spent
many clubs out and about. Our highlight this year was a trip to Skaw beach in Unst
for a picnic, splash around and making
sand castles.
Unst Sports Club had a busy year at the
Wednesday sports club. We have been
involved in an exciting participatory budget
event that the Unst Partnership charity
shop held to invite community groups to bid for a share of £3000.00. The club
received the cheque for £500.00 we had
requested which will go towards a block of
fencing lessons for the club.
We are planning the block of lessons now
and should hopefully have them all set to
go in the New Year.
The highlight of the year for the Yell
Sunday Club was welcoming the local
community to come and help them plant 420 saplings
around Sellafirth Hall.
Here is Oscar with his tree.
THE NORTH MAINLAND
North Roe’s height of the year would have to be our summer disco.
Where we had music and disco lights, played lots of party games and
had dance battles. We all had lots of fun,
and it was a fantastic way to begin the
summer holidays.
One of the highlights for the Urafirth
bairns this year was our summer trip to
Voxter. This included a treasure
hunt, making memory sticks and
we also helped the bairns light a
fire on the beach where they
roasted marshmallows which
was great fun! Everyone enjoyed
the day and hopefully we can all go again next summer!
The Mossbank Social Club has had a brilliant year! From music nights
to meals out at LJ's at Da Mish for an end of term dinner and finishing off
2019 with our own Christmas
Party in the Mossbank Hall.
Bring on the funs of 2020!
NORTH MAINLAND cont’
Ability Shetland’s Peerie Stars had a busy year. One of the highlights of
the year has to be our October Holiday
session, we had lots of families join us and a
visit from the Playvan, it was great fun!
The highlight of the year for
the Brae Adult Club was a
tour of Hillswick in early
September. This tour included
the Weaving Shed, Hillswick
Wildlife Sanctuary and St
Magnus Bay Hotel. All the
group members that attended had an outstanding memorable daytrip
out.
It has been an action packed year this year
for the Monday Recreation Club. We have
had our Annual bowls competition with Ellis
Birnie winning the Robert Arthur memorial
trophy, Ritchie Pitt scooping 2nd place, Gina
Leslie coming 3rd and Margaret Hunter in 4th.
Another highlight would be the visits from
Phil who came into do fencing with the club
which was thoroughly enjoyed.
We finished off the Summer sessions with a
swimming gala and medal presentation at
Sandveien
Neighbourhood
centre.
Yoga for the Less Able classes have continued at Clickimin and
Cunningsburgh, both classes feel
they are benefitting from Yoga
practice. The Cunningsburgh class
was happy to be photographed
doing the Complete Breath.
This year we have done lots of different activities at our Arts and Craft
club including, Up Helly Aa pictures, plant pots and stain glass windows.
We have also had visits from love from Shetland to make bath bombs
and got our beat on when Joy visited with her drums.
The Lerwick Adult Club has had a fantastic year! We’ve had artistic
workshop visits fae Gaada, educational trips out to the Museum and a
VIP tour of Mareel. Along with our regular trips out to the cafes
throughout Shetland.
The Young Adult Drop in Group have enjoyed socialising in cafes
around Lerwick, trips to the cinema and also fencing lessons from Phil
Hibbert. On nice days we try to get out and about to enjoy the fresh air!
On the last Secondary Youth Club
night before the summer holidays we
were surprised by a visit from Mr
Stripey. Club members and
volunteers got to choose whatever
they wanted from the ice cream van.
A big thankyou again to Gary for this
special treat.
The Lerwick Saturday Club have had a brilliant year. From playing on
the bikes to baking, the play park in the sun or a trip to the cinema, art
and craft or our Saturday Club fundraiser where we had table-top games
and teas, with live music in the hall.
One major highlight was the visit from
the Scalloway Fire Festival Jarl Squad.
The Squad was so generous with its
time and the children were delighted to
be able to meet with them, try on their
helmets and hold the axes.
What better way to round up the year than to see
everybody come together for Ability Shetland’s Winter
Ball? It was so good to see so many folk and everyone
had a smile on their face. Peter Wood and his band were
playing as well as disco party music later in the evening.
There was also lots of prizes won during the raffle. The
grand total for the Winter Ball fundraiser was £1695,
which will go directly towards our Lerwick and Brae Adult
Recreation Projects!
SUCCESSES!
Ability Shetland won the
Shetland Choice Award at the
Shetland Baby and Children
Awards earlier this year.
In November, Keir, Ashleigh
and Nathan attended
Shetland Youth Volunteering
Awards, Keir won the Individual Volunteer of the
Year Award and Ashleigh, Nathan and Ailis won the
One Team Award for Adult Recreation Club. We are
very proud of them all.