Dalintober Primary School received a second Green Flag from Eco-Schools Scotland for their work on sustainable education and making eco links within the community.
The school has been very lucky to have been granted an allotment site by ACHA in New Parliament Place and the Eco-Group and Committee have spent a lot of time and effort in working on the allotment and growing their own produce. This has been made even more enjoyable with the help of Mr Chris Holden and Mr Ryan Malone from Campbeltown Community Organic Garden.

An added surprise bonus came in the form of a donation of £3650 from Springbank Distillers Limited through a charity bottle auction suggested by Mr Ralf Mitchell and held by Scotch Whisky Auctions. Mr Mitchell asked Springbank to donate a bottle of whisky for auction with Springbank’s only stipulation being that the money raised was donated to a local good cause focused on children. Springbank provided a specially labelled bottle and other items, including a distillery print, for the auction lot. Mr Mitchell promoted the auction through videos on his website ralfy.com and the auction was carried out, free of charges, by scotchwhiskyauctions.com.

An auction from another distiller the previous year raised £500 but this year’s bottle of Springbank went to a generous, unidentified bidder from New York State for an astounding £3650, emphasising Springbank’s reputation and collectability. Melanie Stanger, Sales Executive at Springbank Distillers, contacted Dalintober PS and asked how they would use the money if they were to be donated it. The obvious answer was to continue with the already excellent progress made with the community allotment.

Caroline Armour, Head Teacher of Dalintober Primary School, said, “We were both overwhelmed and delighted that Springbank Distillers Limited felt that our community allotment was a worthy beneficiary of the total of £3650 raised by their bottle auction through scotchwhiskyauctions.com and the work of Mr Ralf Mitchell – an extraordinary amount! Everyone involved in the Eco-Committee and Eco-Group are very excited and busy making plans for the future. We would like to thank all involved in the process, including the mystery bidder. Our second Green Flag is a great achievement for the school. Our thanks go to our pupils, staff, parents and wider community for supporting all our eco projects with such commitment. Our Eco-Work is superbly co-ordinated by Class Teachers Margaret McSporran, Julie Brown and Alix Brown alongside a very enthusiastic Eco-Committee and Eco- Group.

We would also like to thank McKinven and Colville for their donation of casing and mounting our Green Flags and extend our sincere thanks to Chris Holden and Ryan Malone for all their hard work in helping us with our allotment and other related projects. We are a very lucky, very grateful and very happy school.”

Pictured are: Ryan Malone and Chris Holden (Campbeltown Community Organic Garden), Barry Colville (Chair of Parent Council), Caroline Armour (Head Teacher), Margaret McSporran (Eco-Schools Co-ordinator), Ranald Watson (Sales & Marketing Manager, Springbank Distillers Ltd.) with pupils from Dalintober’s Eco-Committee and Eco-Group.