Scottish communities gear up for 2014 celebrations

13 Feb 2014 04:21 PM

A full list of Lottery funded Celebrate projects receiving funding today is available here.

With the Commonwealth Games fast approaching, local groups from across Scotland will be holding their own 2014 Games inspired events thanks to Lottery funding announced this week. Celebratory parades, community concerts and school sports festivals are just some of the activities that will be taking place with 24 awards from the Celebrate programme.

Secondary school pupils from across Angus will take part in a sporting festival with a twist, thanks to a Celebrate award of £10,000 awarded to Angus Council. Each school in the region has chosen a country which they will represent in the Commonwealth Games Challenge and will create their own team strip to wear. After weeks of competing, the winning pupils will be presented with their medals by local athletes who will be competing in the 2014 Games.

In Clackmannanshire, the Sauchie Community Group receives £8,124 to organise a one day event featuring a community parade, sports day and an evening cabaret. These will feature performances of song, dance, poetry and foods from across the Commonwealth. The parade will also showcase Commonwealth flags designed by local schoolchildren, and the winning flag will be adopted by Sauchie Community Group and attached to the outside of its centre, to be used during future local sports events.

Children and young people with additional support needs will celebrate the Commonwealth Games with their art inspired project, thanks to an award of £9,960. Project Ability based in Glasgow will run arts workshops at ten additional support need schools which will culminate in a patch work banner highlighting what the 2014 Games means to them. The banner will form part of a summer exhibition.

Celebrate provides Scottish groups with National Lottery funding to organise their own arts, heritage, sports and local community celebrations in the run up to 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Announcing today’s funding totalling £198,896, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair, Maureen McGinn said: “There is still time for local groups to apply for Celebrate funding if they want to hold an event before, or during, the 2014 Games. From celebratory parades and community concerts to school sporting festivals and art workshops, today’s successful groups show the range of events which Celebrate can fund. I am delighted that groups from across Scotland are doing so much to capture the spirit of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. It would be excellent to keep this momentum building over the coming months and I encourage local groups to come forward with their ideas for activities."

Celebrate has been developed by the Scottish Lottery Distributors Forum (SLDF) which is made up of all four Scottish Lottery Distributors, Big Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland. It is open to applications until the end of 2014 for celebrations of the people, places and culture of the Commonwealth and of the Games themselves.

For more press or media information contact
Landa Rolland Communications Manager BIG Scotland 0141 242 1458 / 0782 355 2889 landa.rolland@biglotteryfund.org.uk

For more information about Celebrate
Go to our website www.celebrateit.org.uk

Tell us how you are celebrating...
Facebook.com/celebrateitScotland
@CelebrateitScot
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Notes to editors

Celebrate is a £4 million joint awards programme from the four Scottish Lottery distributors: Big Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland
Celebrate will allow communities across Scotland to apply for up to £10,000 organise events that celebrate the 2014 Commonwealth Games through arts, heritage, sports, community and local celebrations or events that celebrate the people places and culture of the commonwealth.
Celebrate was launched in April 2013 and the last grants will be awarded in December 2014.