St Elisabeth’s Primary and Nursery school and Cleveden Secondary School have been awarded funding to develop initiatives related to the cultural programme of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Amongst the 11 project selected so far are a Shetland youth cafe, a Highlands mountain bike festival, a north Glasgow community arts project and an East Lothian Museum.

11 grants worth £74,477 are the first from Celebrate, a National Lottery funding programme supporting events and projects which celebrate Glasgow 2014 or that are inspired by the 71 nations and territories which make up the Commonwealth.

Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair, Maureen McGinn said: “This time next year the eyes of the world will be on Scotland as Glasgow gears up to host the Commonwealth Games. Celebrate has been created by Scotland’s four Lottery distributors to ensure communities across Scotland are able to share the feel-good factor of the Games and we are delighted to see these first grants showcasing a wide variety in what will be possible.

“Celebrate offers an opportunity for everyone to get involved with Lottery funding of up to £10,000 on offer to arts, heritage, sports and community groups across the country to hold one off events.”

Cranhill Arts Project, in North Glasgow has been awarded £8,462 to run a series of workshops with a wide range of local people enabling them to make sculptures and murals on a sporting theme. The hard work will culminate with an exhibition and celebration.

Project Co-ordinator Chris Nicoletti said: “We are delighted to have received this generous award from celebrate; the funding will enable us to deliver a vibrant program of activities while bringing the community together in a celebration of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. For many of the groups we work with this could be the only chance they will have the get involved with the Commonwealth Games.”

On Shetland Yell Youth Café have been awarded £8,000 to get involved and celebrate the Glasgow games. Support Worker, Martin Summers, said, “This funding will provide Shetland’s young people with the opportunity to ensure that Glasgow 2014 and the four legacy themes reach the length and breadth of Scotland. With about a year to go to the Youth Legacy Ambassadors, Youth Ambassadors and Yell Youth Café are all very excited to start work on Celebrating Glasgow 2014.”

Young Scot Youth Legacy Ambassador, Sam Maver, said, “We are so excited to receive the Celebrate funding as it allows young people in Shetland to get involved in sporting and cultural events to help raise awareness of the Commonwealth Games. The funding will help to promote Glasgow 2014 in Shetland so that young people can get involved and feel part of the legacy the games will provide for the next generation.”

Celebrate has been developed by the SLDF which is made up of all four Scottish Lottery Distributors, Big Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland . It is open to applications from today for celebrations of the people, places and culture of the Commonwealth and of the Games themselves.