Ballater & crathie Community magazine - Ballater Community

two and return to their original roots – walkingand fundraising. They have undertaken mostof the major walking challenges in the UK andIreland and so decided to stay local and completethe Deeside Way.The walk was quite an enduring route andone of the most pleasing sights was arriving at ourfinal designation of Duthie Park where we weregreeted by our invited guest’s daughter. This wasrather poignant because Fern has spent a lot ofher younger life attending the Royal AberdeenChildren’s Hospital and it made the stiff legsand sore feet all worthwhile as she clapped andcheered us home!The Ballater Charitable Chiels also made£10,000 in donations towards local causes inDeeside and the Northeast in December. Ourlargest donation of £6000 went to “Jo’s Trust”which is the only UK based charity dedicatedto women and their families affected by cervicalcancer and cervical abnormalities. Their aim isto offer information, support and friendship toAboyneVan HireMobile07808 5684349women of all ages, to help themto understand the importance ofcervical screening, and to providetheir own personal brand of supportif their screening shows up abnormalities or if theyare diagnosed with cancer.We also donated £500 towards the BallaterWinter Festival which was held on 26 th and 27 thNovember. The Festival incorporated a large outdoorskating rink, Christmas themed stalls and ofcourse the annual Christmas light switch on. Aswell as a cash donation, the Chiels also donatednearly 100 man hours in the week prior to theFestival refurbishing the Christmas lights, whichare now a tremendous focal point of the village.On the back of the light switch on, we also agreedto give the Glenmiuck Parish Church a donation of£1000 to help cover the running costs of the festivelights which adorn the church spire.Lastly we handed over £500 to each ofthe following groups, Deeside Youth MusicalTheatre, The Braemar Chanter group, BallaterPrimary School to cover the cost of First Aidtraining for the pupils, Ballater Bowling Club forrepairs to their clubhouse floor, and to MichaelHolley who is undertaking a major sponsoredcycle in aid of the British Lung Foundation.Our next planned event will be our charity golfday at Ballater Golf Club on Friday 14 th June.Aboyne and UpperDeeside Rotaryby Mike PowellThe members of The Rotary Club of Aboyneand Upper Deeside look forward to working withthe communities in Upper Deeside in 2013.It’s difficult to think of this as the SpringEdition of the Eagle when, at the time of writing,many of us are struggling with the winter weather.This article is an update to let you know what’sbeen happening with your local Rotary Club sincethe last edition of the Eagle.Christmas Eve saw several club membersgathered on the pavement outside GlenmuickChurch “socialising” with passers-by and accepting