Carnoustie pupils spring fundraising surprise

YPI is an active citizenship programme which helps young people to make a difference to the charities they care about within their local community. Through a rigorous selection process, six teams out of the entire S2 year group were chosen to compete for a £3000 grant, provided by The Wood Foundation.

Despite not coming out as the overall winners of this competition, Emily and Megan surprised the audience, their chosen charity - Carnoustie Memories - and judges by handing over a cheque for £675. .

Dr Kirsty Mustard, YPI lead teacher and principal teacher raising achievement, said: “This was an outstanding achievement for the girls. This is our sixth year of involvement with YPI, and as a result pupils have been responsible for directing over £19,000 to local charities, either through YPI grants or their own YPI-related fundraising. Every year I am blown away by the talent of our youngsters.

“All the teams worked so incredibly hard to raise the profile of their chosen charities. The school is incredibly proud of all their achievements. The judging panel had such a difficult choice to make. I’d like to extend my congratulations and many thanks to all the charity representatives and teachers that supported these pupils through their YPI journey. ”

Lorraine Young from Carnoustie Memories praised the girls for their commitment.

She said: “I had no way of knowing just how truly inspirational meeting these two young girls was going to be, and how truly beneficial the intergenerational programme was going to be. All at Carnoustie Memories feel truly honoured to now know both Megan and Emily and to call them our 'friends'.

“Both girls committed a huge amount of their time to get to know what we do and have now also attended two of our groups on three occasions. The girls’ confidence was seen to blossom and our members have also truly benefitted from chatting with them and adding a totally new dimension to their lives.”

The girls recently attended the organisation’s Football Action Carnoustie group where Megan and Emily, handed over their cheque to the membership for them to enjoy outings of their choosing over the Summer period.

The girls were thrilled to be photographed alongside Jocky Scott (Dundee, Aberdeen and Scotland), Gordon Wallace (Montrose, Raith Rovers, Dundee and Dundee United, Scottish Football Writers' Player of the Year 1967 / 68), Ian Fleming (Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Sheffield Wednesday, Dundee and Brechin City) and completing the line up, Donald Ford (Hearts, Falkirk and Scotland).

The girls were then each presented with a gift which was signed by the 'legends'.

Lorraine added: “We look forward to continuing our friendship with Megan and Emily and hope to be able to develop further our intergenerational programme with the High School here at Carnoustie.”