SKSC Mini Bus Appeal Share

It is easy to forget the huge effort by the community to help raise just under £25,000 and put a brand new mini bus back on the road to support the transportation of our local sports clubs.  However, with the launch of our new website this gave us the perfect chance to reflect on the efforts and remind everyone of what a truly generous and inspiring community we live in!  As you will see from the list below you will read the wide variety of ways money was raised from grants to prize bingo, competitions to random donations - all together quite amazing!

In 2006 the Sports Council committee were faced with an old mini bus that we simply could not afford to run anymore.  Unfortunately, there was no business model behind the running of the mini bus before so we were faced with losing the use of a vital community asset and to start a campaign from scratch to raise enough money to purchase a new one. 

The beginning of our appeal

So, in late 2006 we officially set-up the campaign and our bank account received a donation of £400 from Campbeltown Tartan Army.  In November 2006 two further donations were received; £136.50 from Sid Gallagher for his efforts at the annual MOKRUN race and £300 from John and Anne McKinlay of the Commercial Inn as they called last orders at their hugely popular local public house. 

South Kintyre Sports Council themselves boosted funds further by transferring £2,000 to the campaign with a further £800.00 being added from Argyll & Bute Council to help with a feasibility study for grant applications.  A letter of appeal to the local Rotary Club of Campbeltown fell on generous ears as we were notified in December of the Rotary Club's decision to make a huge donation of £2,000 - much to the delight of the Sports Council committee! 

A transfer of £34.80 from an old dormant Sports Council account and interest of £5.27 ended the year with our total raised so far at £5676.57 - not a bad start in just 3 months!

January to March 2007

2007 started well for the mini bus campaign with the efforts of our then treasurer, Helen MacKinlay, seeing a further £641.18 added to the pot following Helen's hugely successful quiz and bonus ball over the Christmas period.  Another £400.00 was donated by the Campbeltown Tartan Army following their St Andrew's Dinner Dance. 

In the meantime the committee were busy writing letters of appeal to member clubs and community groups and raising the profile in the local press through the Campbeltown Courier and Kintyre Forum.  A huge amount of effort was put into grant applications sent to the Big Lottery Fund and the Rural Community Transport Initiative but as the committee were to find out later in the year these were unsuccessful - mush to everyone's disappointment (and none more so than Sid Gallagher who spent valuable time helping put these applications together).  However, the local application to the Campbeltown Common Good Fund was to prove more fruitful as the Sports Council found out they were awarded £3,000 in March - with a huge thanks to our local Councillors (Donald Kelly, Rory Colville and Alasdair McKinlay). 

There was also a great response to our letters of support to the local community with the Argyll Bowling Club hosting a Prize Bingo and raising a wonderful £368.50 which was added to the £300 donation made by Campbeltown's other bowling club, Campbeltown Bowling Club (Stronvaar).  Staff at the White Hart Hotel added a bit of fun to the campaign as they raised an impressive £432.90 on Red Nose Day.  (special thanks to Alix Geyer and Alison Brodie on this one).  Another of our member clubs, Campbeltown Soccer Center, took the group by surprise when a donation of £500 was added to the appeal!  £19.94 interest was also added at the end of March.  So a further 3 months had passed and an impressive £5662.52 was added to the appeal bank account to take the amount raised to an impressive £11,339.09 in 6 months. 

However, this was a far cry from the expected £37,000 required to purchase a new bus.

April to June 2007

A huge boost to the appeal and the committee was announced in April 2007 when local Councillor Rory Colville showed his support again to the local Sports Council by supporting Argyll & Bute Council's Campbeltown Regeneration Fund award of £6,460.00 to the mini bus appeal!  A further £200 was very kindly donated by the generous White Hart Quiz group who meet every Monday night and have donated money to local groups for a number of years.  Campbeltown Primary Schools ended a happy April with a donation of £402.91 following their school concert. 

The Sports Council committee under the auspices of chairperson Kerry Dickson turned their attention to the opportunity to raise money by organising the Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon and 10k Ceilidh at the end of May 2007.  The committee knew this was a great opportunity to raise a significant amount of money while supporting the hugely successful race.  The Ceilidh on Sunday 27th May 2007 turned out to be a huge success with the committee and sports club members pulling together to organise and work at the Ceilidh.  A great sense of team building was added that night as everyone worked their socks off to a sell out crowd and helped raise a staggering £3,286.29 towards the mini bus appeal.  It is important to acknowledge the importance that the MOKRUN race played in raising this amount of money - if there was no race, there was no Ceilidh and if the MOKRUN committee of Tom, John, Hendrie Barbour, Elaine McGeachy and Helen MacKinlay did not give us the opportunity to host the Ceilidh then we would have never added this huge amount of money to our appeal - so thanks!  (and thanks to everyone who attended that evening!)  It also cemented a good relationship between SKSC and MOKRUN which sees the Sports Council organise the Ceilidh each year now and help fund the race and the SKSC.

As the tally increased so did the interest with £56.39 added in the middle of June.  Shortly after Kintyre Athletics Group amazed everyone when their young group appeared before the Sports Council meeting in June to donate £500 to the appeal - a quite fantastic effort from the youngsters who held a sponsor run to raise money!  A further donation of £50.00 was received by member club Machrihanish Golf Club before June was ended off with an unexpected donation of £100 from the local Girl Guides.  (again highlighting the generosity of the local community)

Another 3 months had passed and a quite staggering £11,055.59 was added to the appeal taking the total raised in just 9 months to £22,394.68!

July to September 2007

Dunaverty Golf Club started the next quarter of the appeal off when they hosted the Sports Council's Golf Open at Southend and raised an impressive £418 towards our appeal - a special thanks to the then Captain John McLellan and the assistance of Campbell McCallum and James Robertson.

The campaign in general slowed down over the summer months but behind the scenes the Committee were still busy looking at ways of raising more money and grant avenues.  Applications to potential funders were continually being knocked back as our requirements for a mini bus didn't meet their criteria!  Many said it wasn't an important facility that improved sport - try telling that to our clubs who travel over 300 miles just to take part in sport!

The departing staff of A.P.MacGrory's made a touching gesture in mid August when they donated £163.00 from the sale of old books as the well established shop finally closed their doors in the Main Street.  Footnotes committee and dancers raised and donated £400 shortly after when the local group led by Kerry Dickson asked people to dig deep and donate as their float paraded the streets of Campbeltown during the Mull of Kintyre Music Festival.  Hector MCMurchy of the Campbeltown Lawn Tennis Club added a further £105 when he donated half the sponsorship money he raised during the MOKRUN race - again well appreciated by everyone involved in the appeal!

A donation of £25.00 arrived via the Kintyre Forum website in September which was added to the £80.26 interest accrued over the last three months.  £1,191.26 had been added to the appeal in the last three months taking the tally to £23,585.94

With so many avenues of funding now closed and the committee tiring of having to ask the local community to dig deep there were concerns that while an impressive £23,585.94 had been raised in just under 12 months that a further £14,000 had still to be raised to purchase a new mini bus as previously priced. 

However, it was in September 2008 that the Sports Council spoke to the Local Authorities Buying Consortium (abc) who re-branded in April 2008 and were now known as Scotland Excel.  This organisation were dedicated to serving all local authorities and related organisations across Scotland by collaborative working practices to bring about efficiencies throughout the supply chain.  (basically they got every Council etc under one umbrella as a buying consortium who would in turn ensure they had the purchasing power to make huge savings!).  The Sports Council were advised if they applied for Associate Membership they would be entitled to the purchase of a mini bus and enjoy a saving of 33% on the listed price!

With the sight of a nice new shiny mini bus at the end of the tunnel the committee once again pulled together to submit their application for Associate Membership of Scotland Excel.  Hopes were high and fingers were crossed!

October to December 2007

Nearly a year after the appeal started the Sports Council committee received the news they had been waiting on.  Scotland Excel had accepted our application for Associate Membership and we could now look at possibly purchasing a new mini bus!

The following weeks were filled with the committee deciding which mini bus to purchase and looking at a business model of how we could support and sustain a bus without having to appeal again for a new one!

An advertising sponsorship of the bus was suggested and the group got together and targeted local businesses with a view to securing six sponsors in early 2008.

In December 2007 the Sports Council finally placed their order for a new mini bus - a Ford Transit 17-seater - at the impressive price of £21,998.28 - including VAT, plates, delivery and road tax for 1 year!  Through Associate Membership of the buying consortium the Sports Council were able to enjoy a 35.75% discount on the listed price - a quite phenomenal saving that meant we could purchase our new bus.

2007 was rounded off with the sale of the old mini bus for £350.00 and £177.41 from hire of the old bus.  A further £90.06 was added in interest to take the amount raised to £24,203.41

Some costs had been incurred during the year when £1,600 was spent on Logical Scotland who conducted a feasibility study and completed grant applications.  Though these were unsuccessful the money had been received from the local authority, Argyll & Bute Council, on the basis that a feasibility study was completed and grant applications could be made.  Associate Membership to Scotland Excel was £250 but this was a small price to pay for the huge saving we were going to make on the purchase of the new mini bus.

The £1850 expenditure took our bank balance to £22,353.41 - just enough for the order of the new money to be placed!

January to March 2008 and the delivery of our new bus!

Although the money had been raised and the order for the delivery of the new bus had been made (with delivery expected for late February, early March) the committee were still working on the idea of businesses sponsoring the mini bus.

We agreed that local businesses would receive an advert on our new bus at the cost of £500 per annum for 3 years.  With 6 adverts up for grabs there was the potential for £9,000 to be collected in three years which would go towards the purchase of a new bus after 5 or 6 years.  The Sports Council were absolutely committed to this working to ensure we never ever had to go back to the local community with the begging bowl.  Sid Gallagher drafted a letter together and issued it out to various local businesses in Campbeltown and once again the support was phenomenal!  Local businesses were quick to react and support the concept of sponsorship with 5 businesses snapping up the opportunity of becoming our mini bus sponsors.  Argyll Buildbase, McKinven & Colville, Livingstone & McEachran, The Tasting Room (Springbank Distillers) and McFadyen Contractors all agreed to taking up advertising space on the mini bus with McFadyen Contractors agreeing to take the last additional space and two adverts at £750 per annum.  A total of £2,750 per annum for the next three years was confirmed much to our delight!

With the delivery of the new bus looming a further £210.71 was donated to the appeal via our on-line appeal on the Sports Council website and the Kintyre Forum.  A further £268.23 was added in hires for the old bus to give us enough to cover the £600 it was going to cost for the sponsorship adverts.  This would leave us £190.32 which would go towards the running of the new bus.

Finally on Thursday 13th March 2007 the new mini bus was delivered to Campbeltown - much to the delight of the committee.  Rumour has it some of the female committee members were seen driving round the "circuit" in Campbeltown on the Thursday evening with squeals of "yeehaa" heard all over town!  :-)

In light of the support received by the community and the agreed sponsorship income the Sports Council agreed to set the hire of the mini bus at £55 per hire and it wasn't long before Malina McAulay, our mini bus manager, was receiving request for hire of the new bus. 

It is key to realise the importance of the provision of a mini bus for our sports clubs in South Kintyre.  Some clubs travel over 3,000 miles each year just to compete.

Gordon Bennie of Argyll Signs made a superb job of putting together the adverts for the mini bus and the artwork for the Sports Council and some pictures can be seen below - please click on the images to see a larger image. 

On May 2008 we held our mini bus reception at the impressive Meadows View changing rooms to thank the local community, our member clubs and sponsors. 

Click on images above to enlarge

The following local businesses agreed in 2008 to sponsor the Sports Council's new mini bus for three years generating an income of £2,750 each year.

This will ensure the mini bus can be hired at a level which covers basic running costs whilst ensuring funds rise each year towards the replacement of the mini bus in 5 years time.

The Sports Council wishes to express their gratitude to Argyll Buildbase, McKinven & Colville, The Tasting Room (Springbank), Livingstone & McEachran and McFadyens Contractors.  Your support is really appreciated by everyone at the Sports Council and our member clubs!