Veterans group helps to paint Tillicoultry mural

Creative Veterans were in Tillicoultry over the weekend to paint a mural on the wall at the car park behind Tilly Tea Room with people of the town invited to add their own mark.

Folks from the town turned out in numbers over the two days to give their support with graffiti artist Jaz Grady working to incorporate various elements suggested both by the veterans and those coming along.

Ian McNeish, a member of the group, spoke to the Advertiser about a successful weekend which made for a very positive experience for those involved.

Ian said: “Jaz tutored them all, young and old came forward.

“We had a whole procession of people coming in, the folks of Tilly have to be thanked for being so supportive and for participating when they came through, asking all about it, a lot of the children were involved.”

He wanted to thank MedPoint UK for sponsoring the paint, moveable partition specialists Style Scotland who own the, static, wall, Tilly Tea Room for their support and to the people of the town.

The mural includes scenes from the area, the town and the Hillfoots, a rescue helicopter for Ochils Mountain Rescue, cap badges from veterans' units and many more touches with a personal meaning to a range of individuals.

Ian added: “We need to keep these veterans active and give them activities because it's good for them, in public because couple of these veterans struggled to go ever into public again, but we are getting them out.

“It was also to raise our profile in a very positive way, over the two days 300-400 people wondered through to see what we were doing.”

Creative Veterans formed in the past year to provide activities for former military and emergency services personnel as well as close family members.

The mural came off the back of the staging of the group's first drama, Archie's Issues, which was written by member David Gray and recently drew audiences to a farm near Kippen.