Robert Jamieson, secretary, writes: Last Monday saw the final meeting for the current session. The evening started with the AGM, and the following were appointed to run the fellowship for the coming year.

President - Neil McPhee, Vive-President - Willie Crangle,
Secretary - Robert Jamieson, Treasurer - Maurice Rattray, Committee - Jim Mitchell, John Smith, Maurice Rattray, Hugh McMeechan, Willie Crangle and David McMillan.

Greenhills Rural held their most recent meeting on Wednesday March 17 in Barrmill Community Centre when President Mrs Nancy Brown welcomed everyone to the meeting then introduced Mrs Mary Gillan, who gave a demonstration of cooking using a microwave oven.

The ladies thoroughly enjoyed tasting cheesecake and dumpling, totally oblivious to the calories! The Reid trophy for a slice of microwave dumpling: 1st Rose Brown, 2nd Margaret Fraser, 3rd Mamie Andrews. The Barrmill Salver for a handmade pin cushion: 1st Margaret Brown, 2nd Rose Brown, 3rd Fiona Fraser. The Garven trophy for 2 potato scones: 1st Grace Gilbert, 2nd Jean Gilbert, 3rd Fiona Fraser.

Vice President Margaret Brown gave a comprehensive vote of thank, the President adding her own remarks as the meeting came to an end.

Barrmill Community Association has been busy with their ongoing consultation with the local community relating to the present and future needs of local people. As part of this process, meetings were held with village hall user groups and several older folk also held a meeting look at the village and district of yesteryear, recalling people, places and events down through the years.

The number of old photographs also created great discussion, showing how in a few short years society has changed quite dramatically, not always for the better.

Members of the Youth Making Beith Better (YMBB) group have been putting out their Geocaches in preparation for the Garnock Valley's first CITO (Cache in Trash Out) on April 10th. at Spier's, starting at 11am and open to all.

The NAC Ranger based at Spier's has set up the group's Geocaching website entries, which will be activated on the CITO day. A number of the Ayrshire Geocaching Group members will be attending.

The caches are in Barrmill, near Woodside, Gateside, Marshyland, and other local sites. This activity is part of the YMBB's John Muir Conservation Award.

Anne Reid, press secretary, writes: Beith Young Farmers have had their usual busy start to 2010. The second half of the Annual Open Meeting for NFU, Discussion Society was held on Monday February 1. This took the form of a visit to L S Smellie in Strathaven to see round their new premises. The evening was very informative and everyone seemed to enjoy the night especially the cakes and sandwiches that were prepared for us.

The first General Meeting, open to all, will be held on Tuesday, March 23 at 7.30pm in the Beith Community Centre Cafeteria, which has wheelchair access.

The group's constitution will be discussed, a committee elected and a report will be made on the Friends plans for the future development of and community involvement in the Spier's Old School Grounds.

This will be an opportunity for supporters to join, meet group members and become involved in events, practical conservation workdays, survey plans, etc.

See the 'Spier's School' website on Wikipedia for the local and natural history of the site. The Friends can be found on Twitter, Facebook and on their own Friends of Spiers Website.

In an exciting partnership the British Red Cross is working with the Scottish Ambulance Service to establish a Community First Responder Scheme in Beith and we are looking to recruit local people to join the scheme as volunteers.

Community First Responder volunteers are trained in basic life support techniques, the use of oxygen and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). As a Community First Responder volunteer you will receive full training and ongoing support and development. You don’t need any previous First Aid knowledge or experience.

The scheme is an enhancement to the Scottish Ambulance Services’ existing ambulance resources in the area and volunteers can be called to respond to serious or life threatening medical incidences in Beith. The quicker you can get someone trained in basic life saving skills and with the right equipment to a casualty the better their chances of survival are. First Responders have a proud history of saving lives across Scotland.

If you or anyone you know is interested in finding out more or becoming a volunteer the British Red Cross and the Scottish Ambulance Service are holding an information evening on the 23 March 2010 at 19:00 (to about 21:00) at the Beith Community Centre. It would be really helpful if you could give us a call (01292 263946) if you are thinking of going so we have a rough idea of how many to expect.

Linda McWhinnie writes: Gateside School pass on their thanks to Mr Roger Griffith and Mr Ian Buchanan for spending a day working with children to make bee nests. These nests give shelter for the bees to lay their eggs. The nests were made from bamboo sticks and biodegradable tree planting tubes. Once made, the children had to wrap wire around them so they could be hung on the trees at the school.

David Boyd, press secretary, writes: Beith & District Young Farmers' Club held their annual Dinner Dance on Saturday March 13 at Dalgarven House.

The Ayrshire Primary Schools Badminton Team travelled to Wishaw last weekend to defend their Inter Area title which they won last year at the same venue. Beith Primary School pupils Eleanor O’Donnell (P7) who played in last year’s team, and younger sister Eve (P4) were joined by players from Irvine and Mauchline to play against teams from all over Scotland which included Glasgow, Edinburgh, Borders, Lothian, North, East and Bute.

Catherine Clement, press secretary, writes: Gateside Rural recently enjoyed a talk and slide show presented by Rona Sloss of Millport. Rona and her husband travel extensively and enthralled the members as she recalled exciting journeys through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand on a never-to-be-forgotten 3 months back packing trip. Needless to say it was quite an adventure for the intrepid couple, both over 60.

David Dickie writes: At their last meeting they had a cooking demo by one of their members on art of Indian cooking and the first of the Club Competitions. The table dry white was won by David Dickie with Robbie Wilson coming second and in the table dry red category again the winner was David Dickie with Ian Moore coming second.

A Beith landlady has raised more than £400 for Momentum, a charity which provides life-line services to people with an acquired brain injury across Ayrshire.

Holly Pearson, 36, who owns the Gateside Inn in Beith, recently hosted a Virgin Vie make-up party and donated every penny of commission to Momentum.

Momentum’s Pathways programme, which is based in Ayrshire Central Hospital, Irvine, helps people from across Ayrshire to get their lives back on track and return to work following a brain injury.

Charitable publican Holly has also held candle parties and raffles at the pub to raise cash for the charity.

Holly, said:

“I was looking to support a charity which helps people in Ayrshire and I heard about Momentum’s great work supporting those with brain injuries. I want to thank Gateside Inn customers for digging deep and helping us to raise the money. We have had a lot of fun in the process and it’s all for been a worthy cause.”

Anne Riddell, Momentum Pathways Ayrshire Manager, said:

“I would like to thank Holly, her staff, and her customers for their generosity towards Momentum. The funds raised will help us to continue assisting people to regain their independence and return to work after a brain injury. We are enormously grateful to Holly for her support.”

www.momentumscotland.org

Sue Williams, secretary, writes: On Thursday February 25, despite the inclement weather, a good audience attended the meeting of Beith Historical Society. Maurice Hughes (Vice-President) chaired the meeting as the speaker was our President, Allan Richardson, talking on the history of the QE2 .

He began by giving the history of the Cunard Line, then showed slides from the launch of QE2 on the Clyde to her final farewell journey to Dubai, which Allan and his wife Marjorie were on. A fascinating evening for everyone, with some members apparently being all at sea! The next meeting of Beith Historical Society is on March 25 at 8.pm in the Eglinton Lounge when the speaker will be a representative of the Ranger Service from Muirshiel Countryside Park.

Gary Steele, club coach, writes: Beith Juniors FC u10s played host to Stewarton Annick and Kilmaurs Glencairn at Marshlands this week. Two entertaining league games with lots of good play and goalmouth action. Stewarton and Beith started well with good possession and passing. Beith opened the scoring when midfield dynamo Lewis Steele intercepted a loose Stewarton pass to set up a fierce 18 yard shot from Scott Brown that came back off the bar. William Ferguson showed great composure to bury the rebound for a great finish!

A special meeting was held in Beith Community Centre on Monday March 22 with the aim of setting up a committee to organise the 2010 St Inan’s Fete. The good news is that 23 interested individuals attended and a committee has now been formed.

The fete is scheduled to be held and the parade will leave from the town’s community centre on Saturday June 12 and make its way to Beith Primary School where the fete will be held. So please make a note in your diary now!

There was a recycling stooshie in Gateside and Barrmill last week over the proposed removal by North Ayrshire Council of brown bins! A real wee stinker! Locals will be aware the brown bins are for recycling garden rubbish and are generally emptied fortnightly.

Beith’s two neighbouring villages were due to have blue bins introduced for the recycling of paper, plastics and cardboard last week, bringing them into line with the rest of the local community.

Radio City, a converted art deco cinema, occupies a prime site location in the centre of Kilbirnie. Refurbished in 2004 as a community Healthy Living Centre, Radio City is open 7 days per week with an average of 3,500 users per month. The cafe is located in the front reception area with 48 covers, a fully equipped kitchen, self service counter and hotplate.

Space is available outside for additional seating during the summer. Benefiting from an established cafe customer base the operator of the cafe would have exclusive rights to the provision of catering throughout the facility. For further information on leasing the cafe and catering facilities, please contact Angela Tarbert , Operations Manager, Radio City, 1 A Bridgend, Kilbirnie, KA 25 7DF - 01505 685700 or angela@radiocity.org.uk.
www.radiocity.org.uk

Eighteen P1 - P7 Gateside Primary school pupils were involved in a tree planting project in their school grounds on Tuesday March 23rd. The school has been growing tree seedlings for some time and the NAC Ranger assisting with the work also brought along some saplings from Eglinton Country Park.

The pupils were shown how to correctly plant the trees and biodegradeable tree tubes with bamboo canes were used to help them grow more quickly. These tree tubes act like miniature greenhouses and they also protect the trees from attacks by rabbits, mice and other small rodents.

The pupils had previously planted other tree species to increase the biodiversity of the school's surroundings and when all of the plantings mature they will further enhance the appearance of the school and attract a wide variety of birds and other significant local species.

25 trees were planted and the species planted were mostly native to Scotland, being Rowan, Oak, Ash, Birch and beech. Beech (Fagus sylvatica) was the only non-Scottish species planted.

Every since Youth Making Beith Better (YMBB) and Gateside Primary School put in bird feeding poles at Spier's the NAC Ranger Service and Friends of Spiers have had reports of a Buzzard regularly hunting in the old school grounds. The Buzzard could often be seen flying low through the old gardens and even a few near misses were reported by walkers, earning him the sobriquet 'Buzz'.

On Monday (15-03-10) 'Buzz' was found dead by the NAC Ranger who was on a regular patrol. The poor bird had clearly been killed and placed in a remote and inaccessible part of the park. The Police were quick to respond and the RSPB Wildlife Crimes Unit in Edinburgh have also become involved. The Police will keep a closer eye than usual on Spier's and the RSPB officers will visit and patrol the site.

On the positive side, the number of small birds at the Spier's has 'never been greater' and the NAC Rangers, NAC Grounds Maintenance and Friends of Spiers will continue to manage the habitats to encourage both diversity and numbers of visiting and resident birds.