Stagecoach Donate £500 to Summerhill Community Centre Environmental Project

Stagecoach West Scotland have donated £500 to Summerhill Community Centre in Dumfries who were selected as the winners of the “Make a Difference Grant” set up by Stagecoach as part of their annual Green Week activities.

Stagecoach’s annual Green Week covers the Group’s bus and rail operations in Europe and North America. In line with the theme of Green Sky Thinking, the initiative aims to further raise awareness of environmental issues among staff and passengers through a series of events across the Group’s businesses.

This year Stagecoach West Scotland set up a "Make a Difference Grant" of £500 and asked local schools and community groups to apply online. The grant could be used for a local project which would help the environment and improve their local community.

Summerhill Community Centre is a community project based in Dumfries.  The group were gifted unused land from the local housing association to turn into an environmental area that the community could use. Young and old have been involved in creating the Summerhill Land Art garden improving the local area, planting trees, plants, bushes and flowers and creating a pond.

Community volunteers have learnt fantastic skills including dry stone dyking, wood and stone carving.  The grant will be used to hold workshops during the summer to teach people in the community about wood and stone carving and will also help to fund their community fun day in August 2016.

Stacey Pointer, Chairperson Youth Project Trustee said:  “On behalf of all volunteers at Summerhill Community Centre and the wider community, I would like to thank Stagecoach for their kind support and £500 grant towards our unique land art project.  This will go a long way to help facilitate community workshops for all ages and deliver a celebration community fun day in Summerhill.”

Emma McNae, Marketing Manager, Stagecoach West Scotland said:  “Our annual Green Week is an important date in our calendar to highlight environmental issues within our local community.  The introduction of the “Make a Difference Grant” this year has meant that we can reward the people who work so hard to make a difference to their local community.  We received many worthy entries for the grant but the Summerhill project really grabbed our attention as it has benefited the local community on so many levels by not only providing a lovely garden for local residents to enjoy and an eco-friendly habitat for wildlife but more importantly for teaching young and old valuable skills and bringing the community together.”