Always Growing

SU Scotland’s outdoor activity centres— Alltnacriche, Gowanbank and Lendrick Muir—provide thousands of children with fantastic residential experiences each year. In these safe and encouraging environments, children and young people are able to try new activities, learn new skills and make new friends. These unique settings provide temporary Christian communities in which we’ve seen children and young people discover God’s love, explore the Christian faith, respond to the gospel and flourish as disciples of Jesus. In the upcoming year, we anticipate 13,500 young people will visit as part of school residentials, SU Holidays, weekends, and other youth groups, not to mention our Magnitude festival!

Greening The Centres

At all our centres we’re looking into ‘green’ energy sources as well as improving insulation and considering other ways to reduce our carbon footprint (and our running costs). At Lendrick Muir, we’re investigating the feasibility of wind power, having already made use of solar and biomass energy at the centre. Gowanbank already has solar panels fitted and, as part of the upcoming Alltnacriche appeal (more information on page 11), we hope to raise funds to install solar panels there too.

Nature

Recently at Lendrick Muir we have been organising work party days with Peter Vardy staff. Groups of 10–15 people came to plant the trees, remove the invasive rhododendron, plant the wildflower meadow etc. So far, we have run three of these days and are planning more this year.

A Rocha Uk

Our environmental partners, A Rocha UK, ran a successful hub event at Lendrick Muir in May, which included sessions on red squirrel conservation, creating 'edible mini landscapes' and thinking about growing food. 