(Kirkmichael Straloch & Glenshee Parish Church)
The Session House was officially opened in March 2002 and is now in its eighth year of operation. The centre aims to support the local community by offering training courses for adults, and social and recreational events for both adults and children. The Session House is owned by the Church of Scotland and operated by a management committee comprising representatives from the local Congregational Board, user groups and Friends of the Session House, under the authority of the Congregational Board.
During the last year the Session House has had a total of 41 students working on computer courses, Elementary Food Hygiene and art courses. The ila grants provided by the Government have proved popular with students, with nearly all students on these courses using the grants to pay for them. We have been grateful for the continued support of Lloyds TSB who had pledged funding for the employment of our part-time development worker, and this funding comes to an end this summer. The grant has meant that the Session House has been able to operate on a sound financial footing, and we will now be looking for alternative means of funding this post.
The Session House is being supported by people in the area and is working to develop further activities for the community. In January 2009 we began a weekly knitting group called Clicking Needles which has proved a great success. Up to 16 ladies come along to join together producing literally hundreds of knitted and crocheted articles for a number of different charities using donated wool. The ladies joined with other organisations in the community to fill 50 shoe boxes which were sent out with the Blytheswood appeal, with each containing a knitted item suitable for baby, child or adult. The group has brought together some of the older folk in the community who had become isolated with younger folk in this creative venture, which has been rewarding for everyone. Clicking Needles joined with folk from our fortnightly Drop-In for a trip to the local pottery at Christmas and the Drop-in group have also used a local bus service for trips around Perthshire.
We have a small art group meeting in the Session House on a weekly basis, and once again we joined in the Perthshire Open Studios with a display of art and craft work. This year we involved the three local primary schools in an art competition which was judged by all those visiting the art display over a nine-day period. A total of 14 local artists took part in this display together with our Art in the Glen group, Blackwater Art Group and Cally Crafters. We have run a willow weaving course and a further oil painting course in autumn 2009 and followed this with a course on working with colour in spring 2010. Petrina Menzies, our Development Worker, has once again run art workshops for local children during holiday periods.
The building is used for meetings by a range of different organisations including the Community Council, Strathardle Gathering Committee, Enterprising Eastern Perthshire and Mount Blair Development Trust.
Our problems with internet access, which is essential for providing our computer courses, have unfortunately continued, and our ISDN line is extremely expensive to run. The problem of access to broadband is one experienced by a number of rural communities, and we have been grateful for the support of our local politicians in pushing for improvements to be made by BT. The Session House has been able to gather information on the level of need for broadband in our area, which has helped to make a strong argument for improvement. It has been announced that BT will improve the Strathardle exchange in June this year, and we trust that this will take place as planned, as it will greatly improve the level of service which we can provide as well as considerably reducing our operating costs.
The Session House has become a central point in the community, and the facilities and events offered play an important role. The parish covers a large geographical area, and we work hard at keeping people informed of local events to help to maintain a community spirit. Our Development Worker produces the local newsletter, Across the Glens, and also edits the local website, www.the-glens.org.uk, in addition to running an email news information service, reaching over 100 households. A new form of publicising events has now started sending text messages, which allows people who do not have computers to keep aware of what is happening.
One of the major events organised by the Session House is the Summer Festival which takes place each year at the start of the school holidays and draws in a range of different organisations in the community including church, youth club, village hall, with a well-supported arts & crafts exhibition and flower festival. Local businesses also support this venture with displays and this provides a focus to draw the community together.
We have been very fortunate in receiving a gift from an anonymous donor to set up a fund to assist in the training and development of individuals and groups, so that training and development is more accessible to all. The fund will be known as the Pitcarmick Personal Enhancement Fund and will be available to people living in the local parish area. We are very grateful for this donation, which will be managed by the Scottish Community Foundation. We are also grateful to the Mrs. M.A. Lascelles Charitable Trust and the Averil and Peter MacDonald Trust for their support. The Friends of the Session House continue to give financial and practical support in the running of the Session House.
The Management Committee would like to express our appreciation of the hard work done by our part-time Development Worker, Petrina Menzies and thank the community for their support.
May 2010
Scottish Charity Ref. No. SC008021
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