Blog
#BLPTeamDumfries’ 2022
Fri, 30th Dec 2022It has been #BLPTeamDumfries first full year, and 2022 has been a huge success for both our amazing team and young people.
In January we started the year off with a bang at BattleStations in Lochmaben, with a 6-week pilot Game Developer Course with the fantastic Derry. This bespoke digital experience benefited both our young people in Dumfries and Castle Douglas, as they learnt a variety of aspects of content creation such as streaming, videography, vlogging, and using YouTube. Our young people who took part had a great time in Lochmaben and came away with certificates of achievement for their new skills and showed off their videos in a Showcase.
February saw our young people continue their work with their Environment course by taking a trip to Dumfries’ Rosefield Mills. Luke Moloney, who is Chair of Dumfries Historic Buildings Trust (DHBT) took us around the building and taught us all about its history and the DHBT’s plans for its future. Luke was delighted to hear about our young people’s own ideas for the building which they had planned as part of their courses-built environment unit.
With the team taking BLP’s first overnight trip to Glasgow in March to experience ACME Comic Con, much of the previous weeks had been dedicated to making our own costumes. Our young people really enjoyed this time away, and we received many compliments on our costumes!
As the year started to get warmer, we were able to spend more time outside and begin preparing our garden for Spring. We started sowing our vegetable seeds in the garden Glasgow University’s Environmental Studies department very kindly gave of use of, including two raised beds and the greenhouse, at The Crichton. And in May we braved the rain with Colin at the RSPB’s Mersehead Reserve to help the team by removing ragwort to help create the best habitat for the returning barnacle geese.
As Summer approached our young people dedicated themselves to the Water Bottle Pledge, making personal commitments to stop using single-use plastic water bottles and replace them with refillable bottles. As part of our work with The Holywood and their DG Youth Protecting Our Planet grant our team went to Youth Beatz 2022 and gave out free BLP water bottles and encouraged the crowds to make their own Water Bottle pledge. #BLPTeamDumfries had a hugely successful day getting over 200 pledges.
Over the month of July, we enjoyed our second Summer Scheme together with great trips to Threave Castle, Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum, Carlisle’s Fusion Trampoline Park, and another trip to Glasgow! Once we returned to the workroom it wasn’t long before we were celebrating our first-year anniversary on September 13th, with plenty of cake, party hats, and sharing of fond memories.
We got seriously spooky in October, as we dressed up for Halloween… on more than one occasion! First for our own Halloween party and then for a hauntingly great tour of Cruck Cottage at Torthorwald with Mostly Ghostly. And though the decorations came down in the workroom the walls weren’t bare for long as the team quickly got ready for Christmas as we hosted our first Christmas Fayre!
#BLPTeamDumfries’ Christmas Fayre was a wonderful and successful event, which was a huge credit to the team and young people. Our Enterprise group stole the show with a stall of their own handmade crafts and goodies, as well as our #BetterLivesCD young people who came along to sell their cook book.
As 2022 comes to a close it is safe to say #BLPTeamDumfries have earnt a restful Christmas break, and we can’t wait to see what 2023 brings for this amazing group.
