Our trip to Ireland to play Shinty/Camogie was an unforgettable experience. Our girls gained confidence, got to explore another country and fully embraced themselves in Irish Sport. A huge thank you to the Berry Burn Community Fund for helping us achieve this and make such great memories.

Fiddler of Strathspey Festival 2024 – thank you Berry Burn Community Fund for helping it to be another thoroughly enjoyable and inclusive Festival, involving local amateur and professional musicians of the highest quality, with opportunities for everybody to take part in one way or another. A variety of events and activities, many with no entrance fee, provided different ways to entertain, to be entertained, to be involved and learn about the rich musical heritage of Grantown on Spey and Strathspey. Don’t miss the expanding programme of events for the Fiddler of Strathspey Festival 2025.

Hello, Summer! Festival is a one-day family arts festival providing opportunities for creativity and connection in Speyside. Held in the grounds of Aberlour House on the first weekend of the school holidays, the festival is designed to offer quality arts experiences for children and caregivers in a beautiful outdoor setting. Local artists ran sessions for families to participate in drumming, dance, circus, storytelling and visual arts alongside performances by Frozen Charlotte (children’s theatre company) and Performance Collective Stranraer. The event culminated in an early evening, family-friendly DJ set.

The Sanquhar Dam Restoration Group is extremely grateful for the support of the Berry Burn Community Fund over the years. The recent project will enhance and bring pleasure to all who visit the site for many years to come. Thanks, on behalf of Forresians, in helping to maintain a site that is much loved by all who value the unique facility that is Sanquhar Pond.

In the UK, suicide is the leading cause of direct death in the year following pregnancy; that is why LATNEM provides a mental health peer support service for mothers and birthing people in Scotland.

With the support of the Berry Burn Community Fund, two new volunteers were trained, and mental health peer support meetings were launched in Forres. We welcomed 58 new service users in the area who received support to improve and maintain their mental wellbeing.

Feedback from a Service User: “The meetings are the only parent groups I have felt comfortable enough to attend. The advice and guidance towards mental health services have felt lifesaving.”

Rothes Tennis Club 2021 thank the Berry Burn Community Fund for the Grant awarded to them. The money went towards the £56,503 cost of the court resurfacing project.

For the last few years, members have had to put up with puddles accumulating whenever it rained. The work carried out by DOE Sport has remedied the problem. Even with the heavy showers we’ve been having recently, the water just drains through. Nothing remains on the surface.

The final part of the project, painting the surface, has left us with a standout facility. Purple and Green was the scheme decided on by a majority in a members ballot.

Grant Park 100 took place on Saturday, 24 August 2024, when thousands of people marked the centenary of Sir Alexander Grant’s gift of Grant Park to Forres. The event offered six hours of entertainment including music, storytelling, exhibitions, demonstrations and competitions, supported by over 125 volunteers from across the community. One arena showcased falconry, sheep shearing, gun dog displays, Soapbox Carty racing, the Forres & District Pipe Band and cars from the ten decades of the park’s existence, while another arena offered a mini–Highland Games. Local organisations offered a wide range of free have-a-go activities.

Our primary objective with this project was to make the small hall a welcoming and warm facility for the users, and at the same time, reduce the cost of running the venue. We achieved this by insulating both the walls and the roof space. Funding from the Berry Burn Community Fund has allowed us to achieve an objective that was proposed in our last Community survey. We foresee the facility being used by a more varied group of people.

At Naturally Useful, we believe in the power of mindful creativity, having long dreamt of expanding our offerings to nurture local health and wellbeing. Thanks to generous funding, this dream is becoming reality with The Willow Field Project now offering volunteering opportunities and weekly groups for adults with additional support needs. Berry Burn Community Fund’s funding of an outdoor classroom, nearing completion, promises a beautiful, cosy, tailor-made space by winter in which to learn, craft and connect. And their support with accessible paths has truly made our field more welcoming to all. We are deeply grateful for the help with our community project.

I completed a fantastic dental elective in Roxas City in the Philippines, delivering oral health education and completing extractions for patients in need. We worked in both government health facilities and remote rural communities to treat patients in pain and I was lucky enough to work at a dental mission, where a group of 8 dentists and students treated a group of over 200 patients in one morning. It was an absolutely incredible experience I will never forget, and I cannot thank the Berry Burn Community Fund enough for their support with my journey.