The 27th January 2012, Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) was marked in Maybole with a service at 11am at the Greenside organised by the local branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland. Fr Philip Kitchen is chaplain to the branch but was unable to attend and Rev Brian Hendrie led the service which was attended by local councillors, Adam Ingram MSP, local schools and members of the public. The two Carrick Academy captains, Heather Kerr and Eilidh Blondin read Pastor Martin Niemoller’s famous poem “First They Came”. They also outlined the main theme of the day which was Speak Up, Speak Out to create a safer, better future. more

Soft Play fully tested. The soft play area in the Carrick Centre had its first serious test recently when a very busy coffee morning drew in more than 100 people among whom were a large number of eager children who had a great, and noisy, time in the new facility. Staff at the Centre also learned a lot about managing this particular resource. Adults, many of whom had never been in the new building, were treated to excellent coffee and a tour of the centre. The whole morning was very successful and raised almost £700 for equipment. A meeting has been arranged in the Carrick Centre on Thursday February 16 at 12 noon to find out whether there are enough people in the area with an interest in crafts to sustain a class. more

Last Saturday, January 28, twenty-nine residents of the Covenanters Gait development in Maybole and Holly the dog turned up to pick litter throughout the three streets in the estate. On a cold crisp morning it took them just an hour and a half to fill 44 bags of rubbish from the area. Peter Mason, chair of the Residents Association said, “It was a good exercise and the members of the association should be proud of themselves. “As well as litter picking, it was a good team building exercise, where neighbours from one end of the estate who had never met, chatted to people from the other end. more

Four pupils from the S2 Personal Development Group at Carrick Academy visited Maybole Castle and the Town Hall last week to carry out research to complete their Maybole project. The pupils were taken on a tour of the historical buildings by David Kiltie, Eddie Glass and Helen McAdam and learned many interesting facts along the way - including the Queen's visit in 1956 and that there are unused dungeons below both buildings with walls 7ft thick! They will use this research to create a presentation that they will deliver to fellow pupils. Other places of interest they researched were Maybole Memorial park and Turnberry Hotel and airfield.

Carrick Sports Club Burns Supper 2012 Carrick Sports Club Annual Burns Supper was held in the Club on Friday night. Alex Meek said the Selkirk Grace prior to the Haggis being piped in by Bryce McCulloch. Ian Hewitt addressed the haggis with great enthusiasm which was greatly appreciated by his audience. After the meal Alistair Hastings proposed The Immortal Memory to a Man who had clearly been a considerable influence on Alistair’s life. His knowledge and appreciation of the Man’s life and work was obvious to all. Photo l-r Dr Brian Scobie, David Fullarton, Alan Murray, Alistair Hastings and Gordon Hennessy. more

Carrick played host to nearby rivals Millbrae on Saturday for West league 3’s top of the table clash. The early stages of the game were fairly even with Carrick standing up to the Millbrae team’s aggressive tactics. In the tight exchanges the referee had to keep his wits about him to keep a lid on things. Millbrae’s captain was continuously questioning the referee’s decisions and slowing the game down. This was obviously a tactic to keep any pace out of the game, probably due to the advancing ages of a lot of the Millbrae team! more

Doddie Weir, the ex Scotland and British and Irish Lions rugby player, made an appearance at Carrick RFC training. Doddie won 61 caps for Scotland and was picked for the 1997 British & Irish Lion’s tour to South Africa.  Carrick coach Mitchell Waugh arranged for Doddie to take a training session for the club which turned out to be a great success. Doddie used all his international experience and put the Carrick players through their paces. This is big boost to a small club like Carrick and hopefully will help them to end the season on a high. Doddie commented to coach Mitchell Waugh after the session that he was very impressed with the standard of players at the club and their enthusiasm and wished Carrick good luck in their quest for promotion.

It’s a difficult subject to address with Primary pupils – Holocaust Memorial Day, but Cairn Primary School’s Primary 3 to 7 classes marked the event by learning about a remarkable man, Sir Ludwig Guttman, a German Jew, who escaped anti-semitism in 1939 and came to Britain. A neurosurgeon, he founded the spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville, where he noticed sporting activities helped patients recover. He also established the first Paralympic Games in 1948. P7 ran their own Paralympics – to help everyone to understand what having a disability might be like, and how it would affect the things we like to do every day. One-handed basketball was a lot trickier than it sounded. There was Hearing Football – where the players wore blindfolds and had to track the ball by listening. The ball had a bell in it, which helped – a bit! And to get through the Guided Maze, non-seeing children were assisted by help from a seeing companion. It was a thought-provoking day – lessons well worth learning, and when everyone got to try all the games, a lot of fun, too.

Gardenrose Primary School commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday January 27 by participating in a range of activities throughout the week, encouraging them to ‘Speak up, Speak out’ and to celebrate diversity and difference. Pupils from Nursery to Primary Seven examined differences in society and investigated and researched aspects of the Paralympics. Kevin Cameron, a BAFTA award winning film-maker, worked with Primary 5 to create animations. These activities taught pupils about celebrating diversity, respecting differences and the importance of social justice. During the morning of Holocaust Memorial Day, pupils experienced a range of workshops including disability sports, art, music and literacy activities. more

This photo is from David Bratton who lived in the town a number of years ago when he and his sisters, Inez and Hazel, moved to Maybole in 1955 He’s not sure of the year but reckons it may be about 1960 David is front row second from the right.

Carrick Academy Fundraising - Vanessa Riddle The school choir completed a singathon in order to raise funds for the Vanessa Riddle Appeal. A running total of £374 to date.

Here are some very clever pupils from St Cuthbert’s Primary School in Maybole who recently received, by post, certificates of merit in creative writing. ‘Mini-Sagas’ is an annual writing competition for 7-11 year olds, where they have to create a story or ‘mini-saga’ using a maximum of 50 words. The competition is very popular, with amazing prizes to be won and the chance to have their writing published along-side other good pieces. Judges receive entries from all over Britain and abroad. The sagas are selected on the basis of imagination, expression and writing ability, so Millie Hannah (P5), Ben McLaughlin (P5), Alex Sallens (P5), Cole Struthers (P4), Cain Patrick (P7) and Toni McLaughlin (P7) can be very proud of themselves for getting this far.

Children from St Cuthbert’s Primary School, Maybole recently took part in the Marie Curie Mini Pots of Care appeal. Each child planted a miniature daffodil bulb in a pot and watched them grow.

Every pupil at St Cuthbert’s Primary School in Maybole took part in the annual Burns Competition recently. Mrs Rooney, head teacher, would like to thank Mrs Donald and Mrs Lyall, two former teachers at the school for judging the winners which was not an easy task. Winners were: Recitation P1 Anna Cochrane P2 Quinn Struthers P3 Adam Collins P4 Cole Struthers P5 Dani Struthers P6 Toni McLaughlin P7 Blair Hannah Singing P5 Ben McLaughlin P6 Josh Malone

Friday the 3rd February 2012 was the date for another Gardenrose festival, this time Scottish verse, songs, dancing and artwork. All children who took part were awarded a certificate of merit and the winners awarded a plaque. The winning names for verse are: Primary 1 “The Elephant” Cameron Fowler Primary 2/1 “Nessie” Abbie Campbell Primary 2 “Crocodile” Aidan Murray Primary 3 “The Sair Finger” Shane Craig Primary 4 “Willie Wastle” Cameron McAdam Primary 5 “The Ballad of Janitor McKay” Declan Gardner Primary 6 “Address To The Haggis” Robbie Paterson Primary 7 “Scots Wha Hae” Reece Adams Winning songsters: Primary 4 “Loch Lomond” Kirstin Bone Primary 5 “Ye Banks and Braes” Carly Docherty Primary 6 “Flow Gently Sweet Afton” Lewis McCulloch Primary 7 “Auld Lang Syne” Emma Baillie