local finance Background To The Tall Ships Visit
Most of us probably heard about the recent visit of the Tall Ships, or perhaps went down to Greenock to see the spectacle that they afforded. Helen Drummond was the Project Leader involved in the huge task of organising the visit and the myriad of activities which surround it. She spoke recently to Gryffe Valley Rotary Club on some of the work involved.
Erskine Dental Care Donate To Veterans
The veterans’ charity Erskine was delighted to receive an extremely generous donation from a local business; Erskine Dental Care. The Dental Practice staff visited The Erskine Home in Bishopton to hand over their cheque for £5,000 to Erskine Community Fundraiser Alan Moss.
The Tall Ships races are an international Sail Training charity aimed at developing young people worldwide. Up to 100 ships take part with crews aged between 15 and 30 from 20 countries. The Tall Ships last visited Greenock in 1999 and the event was a great success – investment costs of some £2.2M reaped a boost of around £15M to the economies of Inverclyde and Renfrewshire.
Alan said: “We are delighted to have such amazing support from the local business community and can’t thank Erskine Dental Care enough. Their donation of £5,000 will make a massive difference to our residents. The staff enjoyed a tour of The Erskine Home in Bishopton and were very impressed with the care”.
Dr Philip Byrne from Erskine Dental Care said: “I wanted to make a difference and give something back to the people who defend our country. I wanted to say thanks and show them that they are valued and appreciated for their sacrifi ces. I wish everyone at Erskine all the best for the future.”
Understandably there is great competition to be one of the 5 major ports of call, and for 2011 the bidding process started in 2006 with 17 ports competing. A detailed business plan had to be drawn up showing :
• in port facilities
• a programme of events for the crews and community involvement • provision of trainees and corporate entertainment • event marketing and promotion
• local involvement in sail training for young people • race course planning
Happily, due to hard work and hard selling, Greenock was fi nally selected as the port of call between Waterford in Ireland and Lerwick before the ships went on to Stavanger and Halmstadt in Norway.
In retrospect, Helen said that winning the bid was the easy bit! An event attracting some 800,000 spectators over 4 days takes a colossal amount of detailed planning and organising. Finding 25 trainees to sail one of the legs proved easy, but fi nding the necessary amount of companies prepared to invest in corporate entertainment in these diffi cult times proved a nightmare! Entertainment and visits for the crews were needed as well as a huge array of shows, performers, bands, displays, retail stalls, exhibitions etc all provided at no cost to the public – the fi nal night fi rework display and the display by the Red Arrows on departure were the icing on the cake.
No doubt planning for the next Tall Ships visit has already started! The photo shows Helen fl anked by Jim Watson who introduced her and club President John Tuck.
24 |SEPTEMBER 2011 | your LOCAL news every month - in print and online |
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