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Reviewing a special day for our Scottish volunteers

  

It hardly seems a week ago that Broxburn United Sports Club was resonating to the sounds of laughter, the thwack of arrows on targets, the groans of despair at impossible quizzes and competitions.  

Yes, it’s all true as Sporting Memories once again celebrated the work of our dedicated volunteers with a packed afternoon of entertainment on Wednesday 3 September. 

Getting things underway 

We welcomed all of our guests to Broxburn for a special day before everyone sat down for a lovely early lunch served by the staff team to all our guests who all enjoyed a good catch up with friends and fellow volunteers.  

The fun and games then got underway with our very favourite master of ceremonies, John Rowbotham. John, if you don’t already know, is a retired Grade 1 Scottish Football Referee. 

We are so lucky that Iron Mountain continues to sponsor this event. Charlie Watt, National Transport Lead, welcomed everyone with a few kind words about the partnership. Later, all the volunteers were able to pick up a brand new sports polo courtesy of Iron Mountain. Our main photo shows some of our volunteers being worn. (NB – all volunteers not able to attend the event, will get their tops in due course). 

Our sports speaker is definitely Scottish through and through despite his French name - Christophe Berra. Before he shared about his time as Hearts club captain and a Scotland international, he did explain that Dad was French, came to Scotland to learn English, met his Mum and the rest is history as they say. Christophe, now retired from professional football, has had a wide career both in Scotland and over the border with some top-flight clubs and his stories were many and varied.  

But the one that had us all gasping was the time Heart of Midlothian FC, to give them their full title, were owned by Vladimir Romanov. A turbulent time for the club but the pre-season break in 2006 was something else. Romanov had decided Hearts’ pre-season should include 10 days on an ocean-going yacht fit for an oligarch and his football team. 

However, instead of closely scrutinised training sessions and fitness routines, the Hearts squad found themselves on a Mediterranean cruise and what Christophe remember the most from this ‘amazing holiday’ was the food. Not a lot of training but lots of sumptuous food. 

Time to get active 

It was then time for some fun. It is usually our volunteers who plan activities and quizzes for Club members so it was a pleasure to be able to give them the chance to be on the other side. We welcomed Robert Clarke from Scottish Archery who had met up with Brian Sloan, our Development Director, which led to Robert and one of his team coming along with some fabulous indoor archery sets which they set up. Volunteers were offered to chance to try the sport out for themselves in the form of a competition. The eventual winner was Allister McKillop from the Juniper Green club.  

We also had a devilishly difficult picture and question quiz and a giant Spot the Ball to keep our guests guessing. Spot the Ball was won by Derek Smith from our Longniddry club and the quiz, after much head scratching by all, by Mike Skicko from Dunfermline. Some photos below. 

  

Spot the Ball winner Derek Smith                                  Dr Fiona Mclean

 

     

Archery winner Allister McKillop                                   John in conversation with Christophe

Raising the understanding of occupational therapy 

Our afternoon finished up with a truly thought-provoking presentation from Dr Fiona Mclean and Ashleigh Grey from Napier University Department of Occupational Health. Both Fiona and Ashleigh are very highly regarded in the OT field. Sporting Memories has been working with OT students offering them placements during their courses. These placements are able to offer students a better insight into alternative ways to engage with older people before they might need intervention after an incident. Prevention, they emphasised, is the keyword. This was a most illuminating presentation with the good Q&A afterwards.  

Indeed, Isobel Lyman from our Livingston Club said: “I’ll be rethinking some of our activities after this. We’ve got a couple of Care Homes who regularly bring residents along to the weekly club and I think we can do more for them after listening to this talk.” 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable for everyone in attendance, so all that’s left to say is a big thank you to all of our wonderful Scottish volunteers and Iron Mountain for supporting our celebration event.