In December the members of the Currie Balerno Rotary Club were able to see for themselves an example of the benefit that their intervention can bring.

The Club was contacted by Janet Walker, Deputy Head Teacher at the Wester Hailes Education Centre, seeking funding for a four-day residential course for three students with speech impediments. The funding was agreed and the students – Tyler Carrol, Ainslie MacKinnon and Brandon Hogg – were able to benefit from the course.

It was then arranged that Pupil Support Leader Gavin Ellis should come to the Club, along with Tyler, Ainslie and Brandon, to receive the Club’s cheque on behalf of Wester Hailes Education Centre. This is shown here with (from the left) Ainslie, Gavin, Brandon and Club President Lindsay Craig. In the event Tyler was unable to come.

After the presentation of the cheque Ainslie was invited to say a few words on behalf of himself, Brandon and Tyler and he did so, expressing their thanks for the support the Club had given. He spoke carefully but remarkably well, saying that the course had not only enabled him to do much to overcome his speech impediment but also given him the confidence to speak publicly as on this occasion.

The Club members were both impressed and moved by Ainslie’s words of thanks and were delighted to have this rare opportunity to see at first hand what their help had achieved.

This intervention was financed partly by the Rotary Club’s charity account but primarily by the Community Chest, set up by the Currie Balerno Rotary Club in 2016 and now funded equally by the Rotary Club, the Balerno Village Trust and CALA Homes. For more information about the Community Chest or the Rotary Club go to www.cbrotary.org or contact Mike Rowe on 0131 449 5701.