Staff at an Aberdeen day centre are urging locals to help them win a new minibus to make their clients feel part of the community again.
Craigton Road Day Centre, in the Mannofield area of the city, supports up to 25 elderly people every day.
The team provide an array of activities designed to get their clients – many of who are socially isolated or have dementia – interacting while helping them maintain their independence.
Staff are now rallying the neighbourhood to help them win the Press and Journal’s minibus so they can take the clients out on trips across the north-east.
Services supervisor Paulene Monaghan said it would “mean the world” to win the 17-seater Ford from AM Phillip.
She said: “We have a lot of elderly, vulnerable adults who are socially isolated – sometimes we are the only people they see week to week.
“We struggle getting transport as we need to go through Aberdeen City Council and sometimes we can’t get their bus when we want it.
“Some of our service users have not even been round the shops in ages – having the bus would let us even just take them to Sainsbury’s for a walk around.
“They feel that they’re not part of the community at times, so being able to take from for a coffee or just a run down to the beach would be wonderful.”
Ms Monaghan and the team have now sent letters out to families encouraging them to collect tokens in the P&J to boost their chances of winning.
They have also persuaded a local hotel to collect the tokens, which will appear until February 1.
Community groups across the north and north-east are vying to win the £40,000 bus, sponsored by CNooc International, and can enter as many times as they like – as long as each form has 50 tokens attached.
Ms Monaghan said: “We’re getting a lot of support so far. The families are backing us all the way – they can see that us winning the bus would benefit their loved one by getting them out and about.
“We’re open seven days a week, but the weekends are a but quieter so we would be able to utilise the bus even more then. We could just pack everyone in and go for a run for the day. There’s so many opportunities – we would even be able to help our service users get to the centre if the bus driver is off sick.
“We’re really pushing to get this bus – we really, really want to win.”
For more information, visit www.pressandjournal.co.uk/minibus