cranntara.org.uk

SOLLAS COMMUNITY CENTRE, ISLE OF NORTH UIST

Support Taigh Sgire Lottery Funding Bid

The Sgire Sholais Centre Venture project will renovate a disused school to allow the building to be used as a venue for local celebrations and cultural, educational and charitable initiatives and as a multipurpose meeting room with a kitchen and toilets. This building is the only available meeting place in the small and remote crofting township of Sollas on the Isle of North Uist.

When Taigh Sgire Sholais was gifted the old school building in 2004 it was in a poor state of repair and very expensive to run, especially to heat and keep dry. Our most immediate response was to repair the roof using funds raised locally but our building?s future as a community centre still depends on the completion of our present programme of extensive repairs and alterations, at an estimated cost of �120,000.

With local fundraising over the last seven years, and with generous assitance from Community Energy Scotland, Western Isles Council and�HIE, we now have enough to complete half of the necessary work but we are still looking for another �60,000 to complete the project.

http://www.peoplesmillions.org.uk/2011-finalists/stv-north/taigh-sgire-sholais-centre

Taigh Sgire Sholais have been shortlisted by the lottery to compete on STV North on Wednesday 29th June for funding to finish the repairs to Dunskellar School. We are up against one other project that night, and if we win we will get �60,000!!!

What we need is for you to pass this information to all your friends, family members, work colleagues, put it on your Facebook, Twitter etc so that we can get as many votes as possible. The winner is decided by a public phone vote, the phone number will not be made available to us until 9am on the day from this link below, from the T.V as well as having it on this page.
This competition will be on the T.V on June 29th and the lines will be open until midnight. Calls will cost you 11p from a landline and any number can make up to 10 calls, so please vote for us ten times in order to give us a better chance of winning, this will be the best spent �1.10 ever for the Taigh Sgire

For people on an Island like North Uist it is essential to have communal buildings like this, as they are the heart and soul of their community. It is different for us who live near to towns or cities where we are spoilt by choice of numerous amenities. In this case, without the help and support they need from people to win this competition, it could be the difference between the life or death of this community.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS WORTHY CAUSE !!!!

Winner!!

A big thank you to all who voted for this worthy cause, it is with your votes as individuals that the community of Sollas now have the funding required to complete the building work required to bring life back to their community centre.

Artical from Hebrides-News

The Sollas community has won �60,000 in a TV lottery competition to complete building work for a new village hall.
The North Uist initiative was the viewers favourite and received the most public votes in the People?s Millions contest on STV.
The renovation project to convert the former Dunskeller School into a much needed community centre was pitched against a outdoor coastal classroom project in the north east.
Douglas Hutton of the Taigh Sgire Sholais committee was overjoyed when the winner was revealed tonight.
He said: ?We are really delighted. We?re having a party to celebrate. With this cash we should have the hall finished by Christmas.?
He explained: ?The school closed in 2002 and we were gifted it by the estate two years later. But its been crumbling away since because we had no money.?
?We managed to raise �70,000 to replace the roof. We were selling scones, quizzes, auctions and other fund raising events.?
But community could not afford to carry out the full amount of repairs needed.Now, the lottery prize money will cover the outstanding building work
The new Sollas hall will be used by youngsters to practise Gaelic singing and Highland dancing.
Once the kitchen is operational, it will provide meals for pensioners? Christmas dinners, funeral gatherings and coffee mornings. It is also an ideal place for ceilidhs, clubs and sales of works.

Artical from The Stornoway Gazette

THE North Uist community of Sollas was celebrating their win of �60,000 from the Jubilee People�s Millions at the weekend which will bring new life to the old Dunskellar School. As communities across the Western Isles watched many schools close their doors for the last time at the end of last week, the success story in Sollas will surely bring hope that these buildings can continue to remain part of community life. Taigh Sgire Sholais was set up to take forward a project to renovate the building into a community hall which was fit for purpose. Having closed in 2002, the building was gifted to the community in 2004 but was in a desperate state of disrepair. The community first raised �17,000 to repair the roof of the building but needed more funds to continue with the project to carry out extensive repairs and alterations at an estimated cost of �120,000. A significant part of the expense will be the provision of thermal insulation and an efficient air sourced heat pump for heating the building as the cost of heating had been a huge drain on the funds raised. With local fundraising over the last seven years and with assistance from Community Energy Scotland, Comhairle nan Eilean siar and HIE, the community had secured half the cash needed. The remaining �60,000 from the People�s Millions is such a relief to the committee. Douglas Hatton from the committee said: �Of course there is a lot of delight and satisfaction here that we won the money we need to finish our project. The party has still to take place. �I think everyone was exhausted after last Wednesday as it was a huge effort to contact all the people who might vote for us and who could help spread the message. �After we caught up on some sleep we found we had so many people to thank, some we did not even know but who had voted for us. I have certainly enjoyed being able to thank everyone who helped us. There is a buzz about the place right now.�

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� Crann Tara 2006