GLENROTHES MSP SHARES HER SPORTING MEMORIES
Published date : 07 Jul 2020
Glenrothes MSP, Jenny Gilruth, has pledged her support for The Sporting Memories Foundation’s Covid-19 response following a virtual meeting with the Glenrothes club last week.
The Glenrothes Sporting Memories Club has been running since February, with around 6-8 participants weekly.
Since lockdown, the group have continued with their weekly meetings, and are supported by volunteer Ross Cafferkey and group co-ordinator Gary Waddell.
The town’s MSP took part in the most recent weekly meeting, where she shared her own sporting memories from her time playing hockey at school in St Andrews.
The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland is the charitable arm of award-winning social enterprise Sporting Memories Network (Scotland) CIC, and it runs 30 weekly Sporting Memories Clubs and 25 other Sporting Memories Groups.
The Foundation brings together younger generations and isolated older people living with long-term conditions such as dementia through sporting reminiscence and physical activities, with the aim of improving mental and physical well-being, reducing loneliness, and connecting people with social and health networks in the wider community.
The Glenrothes Sporting Memories Club meets over Zoom every Wednesday between 1.30pm and 3pm. People who are interested in joining a session or would like more information can contact Club organiser Gary Wadell by email gary@thesmf.co.uk or phone 07941123278
Commenting after the meeting, Jenny Gilruth MSP said:
“I was delighted to join in a virtual meeting of the Glenrothes Sporting Memories Foundation. It was great to chat to some of the members about their memories of Sport.
“I brought along my old Hockey stick to talk about my experiences of playing across Fife as a youngster. It was a great prompt to hear others stories about the importance of sport to their lives too.
“My thanks go to Gary, Donna and Ross for their hard work locally to tackle dementia and loneliness during such difficult circumstances”.
Donna Mackey, Partnership Manager at Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland said:
“The heart of our work is bringing people physically together on a weekly basis so that friendships can form, peer support flourish and lives can transform. However, COVID-19 hit us and our community clubs across the country suddenly came to a grinding halt – what would we do next?
“Prior to lockdown our club at St Columba’s Church had just taken off with around half a dozen regulars from the local community and we didn’t want to lose the momentum and enjoyment that was building.
“Like many others at home we decided to embrace the digital world and get the group together on a weekly call and with the support of our volunteers, family and several Zoom tutorials later we were able to get our first session up and running in April!
“We have met every week since and the group have adapted well, feeling like we have picked up where we left off with lively conversations, competitive quizzes and sporting reminiscence. We even manage to fit in our exercises!
“We all miss sitting round the table with our tea and biscuits and can’t wait to get back; until that day comes we will continue with our weekly online meet up, providing a forum for companionship, fun and talking about sport.”
ENDS
Local Reporters
