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Beith Community Development Trust

Annual Report

Some Interesting Facts about the Money

We now raise 15% of our income through commissioned work and aim to increase this next year.

The Financial Bit In October 2012 we aided in the production of a Beith Juniors Community Football Club 2013 calendar, where volunteers We had £518 at the start of the year. posed for football inspired shots. This was a huge success We raised £76,651 from trusts, funds, and led to the sale of over 300 generated income and supporters. calendars, raising £2184.

We spent £56,789 on workshops, staff, staffing and lots and lots of community activity. We finished the year with £18,102, all restricted for projects in 2011-12. In reserves we also ended the year with £2,278 amounting to a total of £20,380.

BCDT ANNUAL REPORT 2012 - 13

Our Work We at Beith Community Development Trust are passionate about one thing; Our Community. We do our best to cater for all of the community through a number of programmes and projects

Friday Night Footie We want to increase the physical fitness of Beith one person at time and one way to do that is through social football. Friday Night Footie and Pay as you Play allows children from all over the Garnock Valley to come along to the Beith Astro and get involved in team sports. Encouraging children to get involved in sports is not only beneficial to their physical fitness, but also their mental fitness. Friday Night Footie installs values and allows the children to make new friends.

Skills Camps During the school holidays, throughout the seasons from summer to winter, we like to encourage the local kids to get involved at the Astro in our Skills Camps. Skills Camps are not just football orientated but may include all sorts of sporting activities, allowing the kids to make the most of their break from school and taking the pressure of parents to organise day care. Wee Shots

Wee Shots is one of most innovative community projects, this programme invites the whole community along to Beith Astro to try out new sports activities. This removes the emphasis on football and gives the freedom to try other hobbies such as Judo, Kayaking & Canoeing, BMX training, hockey, tennis, badminton and many, many more …

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BCDT ANNUAL REPORT 2012 - 13

THE BIG SWAP Beith Community Development Trust has also working extremely hard to enable the Big Swap.

The Big Swap is a project aimed at recycling, reusing and reducing waste within Beith. The Big Swap has been led by projects such as Kit Swaps and Eco Laundry, powered by our very own solar panels.

Kit Swap

One of biggest successes to date has been the introduction of a Kit Swap system, in which both kits and boots are refurbished, recycled and re-homed. To date we have rehomed 671 items of kit, with a value of £2975 to teams and groups as far afield as South Uist. Eco Laundry We introduced the Eco Laundry as a method of cutting down the carbon footprint of the Beith community. The Eco Laundry service allows our teams to leave their dirty kits after matches; they are washed in washing machines powered by our solar panels. Laundry is then dried through our very own air-drying system. At present we have washed and air -dried 220 loads of football strips in our Eco Laundry, saving 19 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Solar Panels In 2012 Community Energy Scotland funded our very own solar panels. Placed upon the roof of the pavillions at the astro pitch can generate up to 4 kilowatts of energy every day, all year round.

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BCDT ANNUAL REPORT 2012 - 13 BEITH ASTRO After years of neglect and lack of sporting football facilities in Beith, travelling to towns far and wide to use other community facilities. Beith finally got their very own; community controlled and led, Astro Pitch. 2012 was the year that community football returned to Beith.

Beith Community Development Trust supports 15 teams in total through the provision and maintenance of Beith Astro 13 grassroots teams, 1 amateur team and the semi-professional Beith Juniors Football Club who make weekly use of the facilities.

Beith Astro is a third generation (3G), state of the art football- training centre based at Meadowside Park. The top of the range astro pitch is a revolutionary synthetic training surface; it offers the closest resemblance to real grass possible, whilst also providing new benefits. It consists of a grass like 50mm pile carpet that is filled with recycled rubber granules, making friction burns a thing of the past.

We provide first class training facilities to clubs from all over Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire. Beith Astro is home to Beith Juniors Community Football Club, who welcome teams from all over Paisley, Johnston & District Youth Football League, with teams coming to play at our facility from as far a field as Glasgow, Barrhead, and Kilmarnock. The pitch is licensed through the Scottish Football Association for professional level 11 a side football.

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BCDT ANNUAL REPORT 2012-13 Staff & Volunteers Beith Community Development Trust would not be in existence if it wasn’t for wonderful staff and volunteers. They are the backbone of our organization, we would not have achieved as much without our staff and volunteers. Julie McCarney Jamie Beattie Brent Norris Karen Millan Jane Lamont Caroline Watson Craig Walker Maureen Rooney Rhairidh McDonald Lee Thomson Mollie Kerr Colin Hunter

The Board

Gordon MacLoed John Boal

Jean Watson Kevin Nelson Maggie Jackson Kenny Watson

Thank you to our Thank you also to…

Funders Beith Juniors Community Energy Beith Juniors Football Club Scotland Comic Relief North Ayrshire Council Keep Scotland Beautiful Big Lottery Fund