Staff News

Between September

15th—23rd The Pitscurry

Centre took part in the

North East Open Studios

week for the third time

running and this year was

bigger than ever.

A packed schedule for

service users and mem-

bers of the public included

stained glass workshops

at which some truly beau-

tiful creations were made,

the creation of the

‘Pitscurry Stone’, mono-

printing, sculpture, pho-

tography and drawing of

pond life found in a ‘Dip

and Draw’ session at the

pond. We were joined by

ceramicist Anne Murray,

photographer Jean Lyall,

stained glass artist Linsey

Gibb, countryside ranger

Helen Young and local artist

Kern Jamieson. Kern spent

the NEOS week at the

Pitscurry Project working

with service users to design

and create a wind powered

sculpture. The sculpture will

serve as a demonstration of

sustainable energy and pro-

vide a tribute to Pitscurry

artist Sandy Smith who sad-

ly passed away last year.

After the retirement of Rob-ert Simpson in the sum-mer, Kevin Reeves has been promoted to DCO. Volunteer Werner Lee then took on a permanent staff role as Care Assistant. We also have a new volunteer, Lisa Gribbon, who helps out with arts, crafts and gardening. The Pitscurry

Project is now at full ca-pacity, with 25 service users every day from a group of 90 individuals who use the centre every week. We also have five volunteers and 10-12 staff members.

NEOS 3 is a Roaring Success!

Don’t forget to look at our website

www.pitcaple.org uk

‘Like’ our Facebook page

‘The Pitscurry Project’

and join us on

Twitter @ PEP_Ltd

200 Club Winners 2

Open Gardens Week 2

PEP AGM 2

Community News 3

NEXEN 3

Christmas Fair 4

Inside this issue:

Drawings, prints and photo-

graphs created throughout

the year were on display as

was the sculpture project

begun at last years NEOS

by Ginny Hutchinson. ‘Gie’s

a Han.’ This was a series of

casts made of the hands of

service users, visitors, fami-

lies, staff and volunteers.

The aluminium casts now

hang on a tree in the gar-

den, symbolising the help

and support received by the

Pitscurry Project.

The week was an excellent

success and we look for-

ward to 2013!

Autumn 2012

Pitcaple Environmental Project Ltd News

Issue 6

PEP Talk

Stained Glass by Ricki

Recycled Bottle Flowers

Making the Pitscurry Stone during NEOS Week

The result for the June Draw was:

£10 Miss Rosanna Martin £20 Gordon Croll

£40 Gerda A. MacDonald

And for July:

£10 Mrs Ethel Dawson £20 Mrs Christine Sime

£40 Mr Gordon Gauld

August:

£10 Mr Gordon Gauld £20 Mr Gordon Croll

£40 Mr Robert Martin

September:

£10 Miss Rosanna Martin £20 Mr D MacDonald

£40 Mrs Gerda MacDonald

October

£10 Mrs Edith MacDonald

£20 Mr Neil Taylor

£40 Mrs Gerda MacDonald

If you know of anyone who might be in-

terested in joining the 200 Club and sup-

porting the valuable work of PEP Ltd,

please contact Diane Scott.

ates to whom our

thanks go. Howev-

er, the local area

seems inundated

with Soup & Sweet

events lately and

PEP Ltd feels that it

is time for a change

in our fundraising

efforts.

PEP Ltd are holding a Race Night at

the Hopeville Social Club on Satur-

day 2nd February.

The Annual General Meeting on

Saturday 6th October at the Pitscur-

ry Centre included our third Soup

and Sweet event. Over 75 people

were fed and almost £650 was

raised. The event was sponsored

and organized by Fyfe Moir Associ-

We hope that the evening

will be a good night out in

the dark days of winter and

give our supporters the op-

portunity to have some fun

and let their hair down!

Tickets will go on sale in the

new year but can be booked

via diane@wicketslap.co.uk

or on 07740 779953.

PEP Ltd Race Night Saturday 2nd February 2013

turned out to be a surprisingly suc-

cessful fundraiser, making over

£500 in entry fees and donations.

Events like this do a huge amount to

raise the profile of the Pitscurry Pro-

ject and PEP Ltd and we really are

getting ourselves an excellent repu-

tation.

the drama group from the Harlaw

Centre, together with Artsability put

on a beautiful performance entitled

’The Enchanted Garden’ which was

comprised of dance and movement.

The strawberry plants donated earli-

er in the year by PEP Ltd Chairman

Colin Stirling were ready in time to

serve with pancakes and were a real

hit with visitors. Thank you to the

Harlaw staff, service users and vol-

unteers for helping to make the pan-

cakes and homebakes. There was a

wonderful atmosphere all week as

people enjoyed the site and the re-

freshments on offer. The event also

This summer really was packed full

of activities as we also took part in

the North East Open Gardens Week

on the 4th—12th August. This was

an opportunity to showcase Pitscur-

ry as significant site in the garden-

ing world. The whole week was well

attended and The Harlaw Players,

North East Open Gardens Week

PEP 200 Club

Page 2 PEP Talk

We have received a lot of help and

support from Community Volunteers

over the summer and the site is com-

ing on fast. Nexen, one of PEP Ltd.'s

main supporters, helped install the

sedum roof on Cabin 1 in August. The

service users had earlier recycled the

hanging basket pot holders and, us-

ing our own compost, planted the se-

dum and once it was ready Nexen

used one of their corporate volunteer

days to install it for us. We have also

had help from employees at Bardon

Aggregates’ Kemnay Quarry who

painted Cabin 1 with fireproof paint (a

health and safety requirement) and

also donated chuckies that were used

around the edge of the trays of

Sedum on the roof. Conocophil-

lips also spent some time at the

site opening up the second hedge

tunnel and tidying up the bottom

of the site neat Cabin 1. The

stream sprung a leak earlier in

the year and so they began the

task of relining it. This is an on-

going task so if anyone has the

time or skills required to help,

please do come along to the

Pitscurry Project, you will be wel-

comed with open arms!

We are regularly selling our vege-

tables to Touched By Scotland

and the Old Post Office in Chapel

of Garioch now which is an

Community News

Cabin 1 with sedum roof

Issue 6

This edition’s case study will focus

on one of our corporate supporters,

Nexen. Nexen’s roots are in Cana-

da but today the company operates

on an international stage. It has

grown into a global oil and gas pro-

ducer by consistently finding and

developing significant assets that

deliver long-term value.

The company runs an Employee

Volunteer Programme which pro-

vides eligible full-time and part time

employees with up to two paid days

leave annually to volunteer with lo-

cal charities and/or other recognized

community

organisa-

tions. PEP

Ltd has ben-

efitted from

this arrange-

ment on

many occa-

sions. The

Café and

Shop in Cabin 2 is a result of the

company’s financial generosity and

the labour required to ‘transplant’

the Sedum roof on the Interpretation

Case Study: NEXEN Centre came from a volunteering day

and saved us many hours of going up

and down ladders. The Sensory Tunnel

is another result of Nexen’s financial

and volunteering efforts. Planning a day

of work for 20 or so staff requires many

different jobs and then they seem to get

through them very quickly.

We are extremely grateful to Nexen for

their continued support of the project

and look forward to entertaining them in

the Café very soon.

Page 3

Fruits of Nexen’s labour

arrangement which works well

for us all. We get the valuable

income and the restaurants get

the pleasure of using locally

grown produce such as onions,

tatties, leeks and herbs.

For the first time this year we

attended the ‘Huntly Hairst’ a

food and farming festival held at

the start of September in Huntly

to celebrate locally produced

food. We had a stall at the

farmer’s market, kindly financed

by Fiona Young

Sadly the cold weather has

meant no honey this year but

we have had a few apples off

the trees donated by Brittania in

2010. We are expecting a

bumper crop from them next

year.

We now have SEVEN

squirrels who visit the

Pitscurry Project on a daily

basis and are very

comfortable with people,

come and see!

Cabin 1 with view

The Aberdeenshire Council Pitscurry Project, with the help

of the Pitcaple Environmental Project (PEP Ltd), provides

employment and training for people with disabilities, help-

ing them develop skills that can be used to fulfill work op-

portunities.

Training and support enables people to improve their prac-

tical skills and contribute to local community projects.

The Pitscurry Project is managed and staffed by Aberdeen-shire Council Social Work and guided by staff and parents/

guardians at the Harlaw Centre, Inverurie.

PEP Ltd is set up as a Co-operative Society for the Benefit

of the Community with charitable status to involve the wid-

er community in all aspects of the project. We also fund-

raise to provide additional facilities to achieve this goal in

partnership with the Pitscurry Project. Any person or busi-

ness who supports the aims of the Society can become a

Shareholding Member.

The Pitscurry Project is based within an old Aberdeenshire

Council Nursery site. The site includes a sensory area, gar-

dens and polytunnels that produce fruit and vegetables, a

heritage garden and an innovative environmentally sustain-

able centre.

Pitscurry Project Pitcaple Inverurie AB51 5DY Phone: 01467 681773

PEP Ltd

Chairman: Colin Stirling c.stirling2@tiscali.co.uk Company Secretary: Bob Yuill bobyuill@saos.co.uk Funding: Kay Diack diackkay@yahoo.co.uk Newsletter: Diane Scott peptalk@pitcaple.org.uk