Students from a north-east school have recently raised thousands of pounds to help fund urgently-needed new sports kit for their teams.
With help from FM Group, who are responsible for the development of the Ury Estate, pupils from Stonehaven’s Mackie Academy have raised £5000 from taking part in a sponsored walk.
Students derived inspiration for their walk from the history of the Ury Estate which was once home to the Barclay banking family.
Captain Robert Barclay is known for his feat of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas in 1809.
The school organised its own adaptation of Captain Barclay’s challenge and arranged for 1000 students to walk a mile around the Ury Estate, with FM Group donating £5 for every mile.
The success of the walk resulted in the school being able to kit all of its athletics, badminton, basketball, hockey, football, netball and tennis teams with new strips.
Alan Tullock, deputy head at Mackie Academy, said: “The sports day sponsored walk was a great way to generate funds for new strips which were badly needed by the school.
“The donation from FM Group has been extremely well received and we have already had a victorious start by winning the South Aberdeenshire School Sports Association competition in the new gear.”
FM Group recently started work on the £80m project to transform the historic mansion house at Ury Estate into a centrepiece for the proposed world-class golf development which includes a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course.
Jonathon Milne, director of FM Group, said: “It is a pleasure to be able to support students at Mackie Academy to follow these amazing feats in their own way.
“The sponsored walk highlighted the history of the Ury estate where it is widely believed Captain Barclay trained for his own record-breaking challenge.
“We are working to restore the mansion house to its former glory as part of an overall transformation of the estate, including the golf development and enabling housing.”