East Kilbride Rotary Club
Recently EK Hangout was presented with a cheque for £1000, the monies raised at the joint annual dance organised by East Kilbride Rotary Club and their daughter club, East Kilbride Kittoch.
Two of Maws Mafia, as the committee members of EK Hangout are affectionately known, visited the Rotary Club last at Friday's lunch. EK Hangout was opened 4 years ago by some of the committee parents who recognised there was a necessity for a club for young adults aged 18 to 30 with disabilities. This club replaced the lack of any social life for these young adults with a Monday night club at Calderglen High school, full of fun, activities, new friends, building self-esteem and confidence while improving their social skills. Elma Ross, Chairperson, Lynn Morrison, Secretary and Alan Ross expanded on the work done by the club from organising fish supper's nights, horse riding, go karting and day trips all of which are only a trickle of the events. The club has 40 young disabled adults supported by volunteers, young and old, who are always available not forgetting the raising of much needed funds as the club is self-funding. Alan had a powerful PowerPoint presentation of many of the events full of happy adults enjoying many of the activities.
The EK Hangout club are very proud at winning the Award for Real Heroes in 2014. This the only club of its kind in East Kilbride however they would like to see similar clubs started in other communities.
It was not a surprise to learn of the clubs success as the enthusiasm and devotion to the club of all 3 speakers was infectious. In the vote of thanks club President Bruce Gunn admitted he had only recently learned of the clubs existence and having visited them to watch the work done by the volunteers he was now a committed supporter.
Year on year East Kilbride Group Training Association (EKGTA) produce highly qualified apprentices with the knowledge and skills for a successful career in engineering. The winning apprentice of the year, Edward Massey, gave an extremely interesting talk on his decisions, the outcomes and his plans for the future to the members of East Kilbride Rotary Club.
As a young boy he was always interested in DIY who continued during his secondary school education. He gained the necessary qualifications for acceptance to Strathclyde University however when he heard of the EKGTA Apprentice Scheme Eddie did some research, approached EKGTA and with their assistance was interviewed by Terex for the position of apprentice tool maker, successful with the interview but having no idea what are the duties of a toolmaker. This was the start of his 4 years apprenticeship engineer training at EKGTA.
One of the interesting projects while at EKGTA was the renovation of a 40 year old dump truck. Meanwhile he also achieved an HNC in mechanical engineering at Langside College. His work ethic came from one of his tutors citing a very old quotation, "there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path". He believes hard work is one of the tenets of success. Eddie is now plans to continue his education at Glasgow Caledonian University. General Manager of EKGTA, Tom McBrearty, gave a brief overview on the current situation of apprentices. President Bruce Gunn presented Eddie with a cheque for £100 in recognition of his achievements.
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