Volunteer Rangers
wanted for Loch Lomond and Trossachs Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority has launched a recruitment drive to find Volunteer Rangers to help look after the National Park and to ensure visitors have a great experience when they arrive. They will have the opportunity to work on a number of activities including helping out at Visitor Centres, delivering events, helping visitors at popular sites including village centres and working on environmental projects, such as wildlife monitoring. With a minimum commitment of two days a month, Volunteer Rangers will be involved throughout the whole year. There are no specific qualifications needed to get involved but we are looking for confident volunteers who are able to meet a wide variety of people and share with others what they know and love about the National Park. If you have a passion for interacting with people, being outdoors and want to demonstrate or improve your existing skills, we want to hear from you. An open evening will be held on Thursday 14 October from 6-8pm for anyone interested in becoming a Volunteer Ranger. This will be an opportunity to meet some of the Rangers and find out more about the role. For more information and an application pack visit www.lochlomond-trossachs.org or contact volunteering@lochlomondtrossachs.org or phone 01389 722600. The minimum age for applying is 18.
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The Gaelic Playgroup On Thursday 9 September Balquhidder village hall hosted the first Gaelic Playgroup. Over the past three weeks we have introduced local children of varying ages (5 months - 11 yrs), to the Gaelic language. Through singing songs, conversation and playtime, they are learning basic Gaelic phrases, such as ‘How are you? I am fine’ and ‘My name is…’ They have also been concentrating on the colour red. It has been great fun and some of our attempts at pronunciation have certainly provided much amusement! We really hope that the group will be a chance for the children to get together and play, for Mums to meet and for the Gaelic language to be heard and experienced. We hope that this will encourage an interest in the language as the children grow up. We are very grateful to Joan Mann and Cathy Boreland for giving their time and energy to leading the Gaelic learning. Thanks to funding from Bord na Gaidhlig we have been able to purchase play equipment to support the group and last week we enjoyed playing games with a parachute. We hope to add to the equipment as we see what is popular and what else might enhance their play. After some free playtime the children sit down together and enjoy a healthy snack provided by the playgroup; this is also an opportunity to learn some Gaelic words for food, although we weren’t sure if there was a word for ‘Pop corn’ in Gaelic! The Playgroup is held every Thursday in Balquhidder village from 10.30am to 12.30pm and costs £1.00 per family. It’s never too late to come and join us, we would love to see you (no Gaelic knowledge required). If you would like more information please email Abbey at abbeyarkotxa@googlemail.com