Glenurquhart Primary School pupils’ funds boost vintage village café – they raised £250 to buy a vintage style DAB radio and Amazon Echo for the Glenurquhart Care Centre
Youngsters have used funds raised from a social enterprise exercise to benefit local elderly residents.
The pupils, from a multi-composite Gaelic Medium class at Glenurquhart Primary School in Drumnadrochit, set up their own T-shirt printing company and donated all profits to the Glenurquhart Care Centre.
They entered a social enterprise Dragons’ Den style competition for Gaelic Medium children before the summer break and pushed to help older people in the community in appreciation of how much the last 18 months has impacted on the elderly in particular.
They named their company GMTs and received a £50 start-up fund from the Social Enterprise Academy to set them on their way.
They came second in the competition.
Teacher Ewen Kelly said: “On speaking to the care centre the children discovered that they were in the process of setting up a vintage café for their elderly clients and would really appreciate a vintage style DAB radio.
“Also the care centre felt that an Amazon Echo would be useful to them to help the elderly stay in touch with friends or relatives.
“T-shirts and transfer paper were bought and then the T-shirts were produced.
“Through word of mouth and advertising on the school blog the class sold out all their T-shirts and raised a profit of £250 for the Glenurquhart Care Centre.
“The children have done so well in coming up with the idea of producing and selling the T-shirts but I am particularly pleased that they wanted to do something for the older members of the community in light of their difficulties through the coronavirus pandemic.”
Head teacher Kerrie Laird said: “The children have really shown their creativity and perseverance when making these Gaelic Medium T-shirts (GMTs) for their social enterprise.
“They’ve had many aspects to consider and lots of trial runs as they got used to ironing and having to reverse the transfers.
“They’ve really enjoyed people wearing their T-shirts, promoting them online and introducing some Gaelic language wider afield at the same time.”
