Archive for category: News

2015 sees 25th Stirling (Dunblane) Boys’ Brigade celebrate 115 years since the founding of the company – in its original 1st Dunblane form – back in 1900. To mark the occasion, a number of events are being held on the weekend of 2nd-4th October including a reunion dinner to which all former members and officers of the company are invited.

The dinner will be held in the Victoria Hall, Dunblane at 7.30pm. Tickets are £25 per person and include a three-course meal. A cash bar will be available on the night. All proceeds from the evening will go to Dunblane BB funds to help support the programme for its current 200 boys and officers.

Former captains and officers from yesteryear have been lined up to tell some stories of BB years gone by and we invite you to bring along any photographs, uniform, badges or other BB paraphernalia to share. Entertainment will be provided at the beginning of the night by the Boys’ Brigade band.

To reserve a ticket, please e-mail info@dunblanebb.org.uk or call 01786 821387. Alternatively, you can purchase online straight away at Eventbrite (no additional fee).

You can also check the Facebook event page to see who else is planning to come.

Dunblane Boys’ Brigade is holding a huge summer appeal collection for Startup Stirling’s crisis food bank. We are responding to a very tough situation which occurs in the summer months when demand is highest yet supplies are at their lowest.

The collection will take place on Friday 19th June between 5.30 and 8.00pm in Dunblane Cathedral Hall. All donations of non-perishable foodstuffs, toiletries, household supplies, baby products, etc. will be gratefully received. Cash or cheque donations to help towards fresh food can also be made.

Why is the need so great in summer? There are many reasons, but here are the key ones:
In the summer, children are off school, hence they have no access to free school meals or breakfast clubs, which can normally provide two meals per day for children of families in need.
Working families may have to shell out more in the holidays for child care or activities to allow them to keep working, hence less money for food for themselves, as adults.
During the holidays, people who normally donate are away and so donations drop off significantly.
Organisations such as our own, which hold regular monthly collections, are on a break and so, again, supplies into the food bank diminish.

All of these factors add up to create a very tough situation. We don’t want to see Startup Stirling’s food bank shelves go bare over the summer, but that is a very real possibility. However, if the people of Dunblane can respond in great number, we can collect enough in one night to ensure this doesn’t happen.

What should I donate?

FOOD: Cereals, cereal bars, tinned fish/meat, tinned soup/veg/beans etc., rice, pasta, jam, peanut butter, cook-in sauces for pasta/rice, dried soups, instant meals (non-perishable), biscuits/oatcakes, condiments, tea/coffee/hot chocolate, sugar, UHT/long-life milk, diluting juice, tinned fruit/desserts, condiments.

HOUSEHOLD: kitchen roll, toilet roll, scourers, washing-up liquid, hand-soap, multi-purpose cleaner, shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, shower gel, shaving foam/gel, razors, tampons.

BABY SUPPLIES: wipes, cream, nappies, etc.

You can also donate cash or cheques (payable to ‘Startup Stirling’) on the night. These will go towards providing fresh fruit and vegetables etc along with the packs which are sent out using donated food. Thanks for your support. For more information about Startup Stirling, see www.startupstirling.org.uk

Our Junior Section, which meets on Friday evening, has places available for boys in P4 and P5 at the moment. Junior Section provides a huge variety of activities for boys, based around earning badges, having fun, keeping fit and learning skills for life in a Christian environment. Competitions, trips, weekends away, walks, swimming and joint activities with other local BB groups expand the programme beyond the hall on a Friday, too.

Normal meeting time is a Friday 6.10-7.45pm at the Cathedral Hall. We would be glad to welcome boys in P4/5. However, there is currently a waiting list for P6 (and also for P3 in Anchor Boys). Please call 821387 or e-mail info@dunblanebb.org.uk to get more information.

(Information correct as of 31/01/2015)

Over the past seven days, Dunblane BB Boy, Liam McGregor, and his dad, Willie, have been cycling almost the length of Scotland to celebrate 130 years of the Boys’ Brigade.

After a week at our BB Summer Camp under canvas at Brodie Castle, near Forres, father and son drove up to Caithness with mum, Alison and sister, Chloe, as the support team and began their BB-themed journey at Pennyland House in Thurso, the house where Boys’ Brigade founder, William Alexander Smith, was born on 27th October 1854. The next week would see them cycle parallel to the A9 all the way to Glasgow, where they completed their 353-mile journey at Woodside Mission Hall, where that same William Smith went on to found the world’s oldest and best youth organisation, The Boys’ Brigade, on 4th October 1883.

Connecting the two most significant buildings in the Boys’ Brigade’s history on the journey was deliberate and one of the final major events to mark the BB’s 130th Session during the 2013-14 ‘year’. As well as paying their respects to the man who started the whole thing off, Liam and Willie have been raising funds for Dunblane Boys’ Brigade and hope to reach their target of £1,000. Donations can be made online at their page and your support would be very welcome.

Throughout the session, a number of events have been held by Dunblane BB, notably a hike and barbecue up Dumyat on an unseasonably warm September 2013 day to mark the anniversary, a special church service on the 4th October itself, participation of two officers and a boy in the Great Scottish Run and many more events coordinated by Boys’ Brigade HQ and individual companies around Scotland and beyond.

Tickets are available now for our first-ever Boys’ Brigade Pantomime! Entitled The Pied Piper Fae Doune it’s an hilarious take on a Dunblane of the future which has not even a whiff of petrol, causing gridlock and meaning the bin lorries can’t get in the town, starting a rat problem! There’ll be lots of laughs and a great time guaranteed for all.

You can purchase tickets online at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-pied-piper-fae-doune-tickets-9682904829 or call Colin Anderson on 822955.