A GALA committee has issued an urgent appeal for support in a bid to keep community events going at the scale they have grown to.

Kincardine Children’s Gala Committee are looking for helping hands both on event days and also for support with administrative tasks and fundraising.

The annual gala day, and numerous other events the committee puts on throughout the year, are not under threat.

However, the current committee members feel that without some new blood coming in, they will not be able to continue putting events on to the scale they have grown to over the years.

Treasurer Darren Empson has been involved with the events team since the age of 14 and spoke of how the family fun days have grown in scale over the past 25 or so years.

(Image: Scott Barron)

He said: “Our gala has grown considerably and I’ve seen so many changes to what we include and the activities and rides we put on for the kids.

“But, that’s just making our job a lot harder and that’s why we need help, we need more bodies to get involved and help us.”

While the Kincardine Children’s Gala is the main attraction on the third Saturday of June each year, the volunteer team also runs Christmas events with a switch-on and Santa’s sleigh.

They also organise events and parties around key holidays, including Easter and Hallowe'en, meaning there is plenty to get involved with throughout the year.

Darren added: “Negotiations with the council now take a lot more time – from applications to hold events, for parades – all that stuff is taking a lot longer now and we really need to try and lighten the load on the current committee.”

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Support is sought with tasks such as managing social media, administration, advertising, organising parties, BBQs as well as fundraising events, meaning it is not all manual labour.

There is plenty of heavy lifting to do too, building stages and marquees before taking it all down at the end of the day.

Darren made clear the events will still go ahead, regardless of how many people might come forward to offer their help.

He said: “We would never say that the gala and events wouldn’t go ahead, but we would have to scale back what we do on gala day and at other events.”

It is all hard volunteer work, but the rewards are great when families come out in force and children are enjoying a special day.

(Image: Scott Barron)

People in and around Kincardine interested in joining the committee, or in lending a hand, can get in touch with the Kincardine Gala page on Facebook or email vicechair.kincardinegala@gmail.com for more information.