The Royal Bank of Scotland Kiltwalk is an annual event in Scotland where thousands of charity supporters gather together from all over the country in order to raise money and change lives. The Kiltwalk is a powerful fundraising platform for Scottish Charities and this year, volunteers from the School Service chose to walk in the hopes of raising money for the NSPCC!
We had six brilliant NSPCC volunteers take part in the Kiltwalk in Edinburgh; Tricia Cochrane, May King, Allan Deeson, Agnes Ramsay and her sister Jean, Judith Fleming and her husband Richard as well as Fiona Brannan and her two daughters (see picture below).
There are three lengths of walks that can be completed for every event; The Mighty Stride; The Big Stroll and The Wee Wander. The majority of the volunteers completed the 6 mile Wee Wander in aid of raising money for the NSPCC. In addition to this, Fiona and her daughters completed The Big Stroll together and we also had one volunteer, Agnes, who courageously completed The Mighty Stride which is a total of 26 miles alongside her sister Jean Mitchell and they managed this in 7.5 hours! (see picture below!)
Despite the different starting point for each walk, every walker finished at the Kiltwalk Village at BT Murrayfield, where they got to enjoy well-earned entertainment from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.
As seen above – At the beginning of the walk our volunteers were spotted and interviewed by the conductor of the event! This allowed everyone in attendance to hear who the volunteers were and what they do for the NSPCC – a brilliant way to share and inspire others whom are involved in work within a charity.
The idea to enter the Kiltwalk came from NSPCC School Service volunteer Allan Deeson, who thought it would be a great idea for a group of volunteers to join together and raise not just awareness of the service but also a chance to raise funds for the charity. After an agreement to do so, the NSPCC Buddies were created!
The Kiltwalk is a very well-known event amongst charities and it can be a memorable day for all. We asked the volunteers who took part, what their thoughts were of the day;
Tricia Cochrane a volunteer of three years spoke very highly of the Kiltwalk stating she “loved the teamwork and the great chats we had over the one and half hour leisurely walk back to Murrayfield Stadium… Great walk, Great team and GREAT FUN.”
More than 700 charities are set to have benefited from the Kiltwalk, making it Scotland’s biggest charity event.
May King, a fellow volunteer with Tricia also shared with us: “It was a great atmosphere and a chance to meet other charity groups.”
Three of the volunteers including May and Tricia took their own green Buddies with them (our mascot which we take to schools for every visit) whilst all proudly wearing the vibrant and famous green t- shirts – provided by the charity prior to starting the event. Tricia also went the extra mile and designed her own NSPCC carrier bag to help carry Buddy the full 6 miles!
So far the group has raised an incredible £3,000!! They have created a joint fundraising page which has been shared on Facebook to engage more sponsors, if you would like to donate the link is https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nspccbuddies
NSPCC Scotland 