Dave Thompson MSP

SKYE, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Dave Thompson will present a cheque to the Laggan Forest Trust to allow the organisation to expand its educational programmes for local children.

The £5,000 award has been made by the Bank of Scotland Foundation which distributes £1 million through its Small Grants Programme and Employee Matched Giving Schemes to community projects across Scotland every year.

The money for Laggan Forest Trust will be used to purchase new equipment and help encourage greater involvement from local children in the community woodland.

Mr Thompson said: “The team behind Laggan Forest Trust already do a great amount of extremely valuable community work and have done a lot to involve local schoolchildren but this extra funding will help them to grow this further, for example through the development of the recently-formed Nutty Explorers Club.

“This award from the Bank of Scotland Foundation is very welcome and there is hope that it may be the foundation of ongoing support in the future and I will do what I can to encourage that.

He added: “The deadline for the final tranche of funding from the Foundation for this year has just passed but I would urge more community groups to be aware of the potential to follow Laggan Forest Trust’s fine example in future years and start preparing now to made an application for next year’s grants from this important charitable funder.

Notes:

Dave Thompson MSP will present the cheque for £5,000 to Laggan Forest Trust on Friday October 28th.

The Bank of Scotland Foundation is an independent charity working with charities across Scotland supporting people and their local communities.

The Foundation receives an annual donation of £1m from Lloyds Banking Group to fund the Foundation's Small Grants Programme and Employee Matched Giving Scheme.

This year applications were accepted up to and including £20,000 for the Small Grants Programme and grants are awarded for one year only. Full details and a Small Grants application form can be downloaded from the website at www.bankofscotlandfoundation.org