Moira Webster, Sport and Leisure Supervisor, Keith Sports and Community Centre

Earlier this year as well as dealing with the Covid pandemic and the impact this has had on the operations at Keith Sports and Community Centre, Moira was called into action not once but twice when Keith experienced 2 episodes of gas outages across the town.

The Scottish Gas Network (SGN) required to set up a base in Keith for this extensive repair work and the Centre was identified as an ideal location for this base. A team of SGN staff were based at the Centre for a number of days on both occasions and Moira worked tirelessly, to open up and secure this building, even waiting up, well into the early hours (2am) when the SGN Officials let her know that they were finished for the night so she could go back and lock the facility. She was then back first thing in the morning to let them back in again, helping them with local knowledge and any copying, printing etc that they required. SGN were so thankful of Moira’s contribution to helping respond to this emergency that they even sent her flowers and chocolates as a sign of appreciation. Definitely going above and beyond the call of duty – thanks Moira.

Message submitted by Kim Paterson ((Acting) Educational Resources Manager

The Active Schools and Sport in Moray team have had to innovate and adapt to new ways of working throughout the Covid pandemic which has been both challenging and rewarding.  Over and above this they received a significant pot of funding from sportscotland/Scottish Government just prior to the Summer Holiday period to ensure as wide a programme of sports and physical activity could be offered to Moray’s young people during the Summer holiday which was free of charge to all.  The planning phase for this programme was a matter of weeks, rather than months, but the team rallied together to produce a highly comprehensive programme that involved well over 40 clubs/organisations.  This was a mammoth task but one which they have planned and implemented to the highest standard despite the short timescale.  They also made sure they connected and liaised with the various other Council and partner agencies to avoid duplication of work including the youth work team and third sector agencies such as Outfit Moray.  The programme to date went exceptionally well with hundreds of children accessing a variety of opportunities whilst at the same time meeting friends, making new friends, learning life skills and experiencing new activities.  The team have also enlisted a large volume of young leaders to help with the delivery of this programme which has been very inspiring to see and without these young leaders the programme would not have been able to be as diverse as it is.  The social media video footage of the Summer programme on our facebook page paints a thousand words with the smiles, laughter and fun evident.  I am very proud of the teams efforts and appreciate that they have had to prioritise this Summer programme over their planning work streams and for some annual leave intentions.  Thanks to you all for creating a fantastic programme and supporting our community sports clubs to recover and re-engage.

Message submitted by Kim Slater (Acting Educational Resources Manager)