Archive for category: News

On Saturday 30th September, over 700 young people and leaders came together across four cities to kick start our 140th celebrations. 140 teams took part in the Boys’ Brigade Monopoly Challenge in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Aberdeen, with teams racing around these cities trying to visit as many properties as possible on that city’s Monopoly board in five hours.

Over five hours on the Saturday, the teams and their leaders had to walk or use buses, trams or subways to get group photos and submit them online at venues as diverse as Old Trafford and the Lowry Museum in Manchester, the Emirates Arena and Transport Museum in Glasgow and both Aberdeen’s harbour and airport, to name just a couple in each city! As well as location targets, each team had other photo challenges such as finding a clock at the exact time of 1.40 (to match the anniversary) and finding the most expensive piece of jewellery or taking a selfie with a police officer.

Our Captain, Fraser Boyd, said the event was one of the most exciting held for many years. “By all accounts, our teams of boys and leaders had a brilliant time exploring the cities, making decisions as a team, sticking to a strategy and meeting new BB friends from around the country as they bumped into each other at checkpoints. Everyone agreed we should have similar events in other cities soon. We want to extend a big thanks to all the leaders and organising teams who made these events so successful and enjoyable”.

Aberdeen teams

Manchester teams

Glasgow teams

We are delighted to report that thanks to these boys’ efforts walking and swimming for miles in 2023 – and the donations of all their generous sponsors – we have reached our target of £6,500 to support our friends at Nansato Primary School in Likhubula, Malawi.

Due to changes to the value of the Malawian currency, the money raised, which was a bit above the target anyway, will now also help to rebuild the toilet block at Nansato PS that was damaged in the cyclones in 2021 and 2022 as well.

This will make a huge impact on the lives and education of many hundreds of children. Thank you, everybody!

At the moment, we are transforming the way we run Boys’ Brigade – temporarily! – both in the sense that we are having to meet virtually and complete activities for our awards remotely at home. But one thing hasn’t changed: we are still trying to do our very utmost for the community of Dunblane at this challenging time. Our members are helping get shopping, walk dogs, playing music at 8pm on Thursdays for the NHS & carers but also delivering copies of our Band’s CD to the elderly and isolating/shielding around the town in the hope we can bring some of our music to lighten their day!

If you think that our members or their families could be of help to you, please get in touch either by calling 821387, e-mail info@dunblanebb.org.uk or contacting us via Stirling Council’s helpline on 01786 404040. We are a registered volunteer group with the Council during this period while we fight off coronavirus.