Ray's Opportunities charity awarded £700 by the Auchernack Trust to provide meals to older people in Forres
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A local charity has been awarded more than £700 to provide free meals to older people in Forres.
Ray’s Opportunities - providing support services for people with physical, hidden and learning disabilities in Moray - has received £720 from the Auchernack Trust, a fund gifted by late Forres postie William Cameron, originally for the benefit of residents of Auchernack Care Home.
Ray’s Opportunities trustee and retired businessman, Ray McDonald, is grateful for the support.
He said: “It will be used to provide a two-course meal at a local venue for our senior bingo patrons.”
Ray’s Opportunities runs bingo on Wednesday evenings from September to April at Forres Bowling Club.
“These sessions have proved successful in rekindling friendships,” explained Ray, “as well as helping combat loneliness and social isolation.”
The Auchernack Trust is administered by local Moray Councillors and Forres Community Council’s chairperson.
Cllr Kathleen Robertson (Forres, Conservative) said: “The funding will provide a meal for up to 40 people over 60 years of age, bringing folk together and promoting wellbeing.”
As a former community services volunteer at Towerview Day Care Centre and previous chairman of The Royal Mencap Society in Barking and Dagenham, Ray has spent years volunteering within the health and social care sector.
Ray’s Opportunities was founded in 2015 to help people live more independently. The charity ran the Forres House Community Centre Community Café until 2020 when covid hit trade.
Ray explained: “Following the lifting of Covid 19 restrictions, the trustees made the difficult decision of closing, mainly due to the facility being financially non-viable as a result of reduced footfall. We are now considering future engagement within the local community.”
In 2019, Ray’s Opportunities was awarded £2000 by #YouChoose4 public participatory budgeting vote, administered by tsiMoray, linked with Health and Social Care Moray. The award enabled the charity to produce a powerpoint presentation entitled ‘Improving the understanding of Autism’.
Ray said: “This presentation features presenters who have been diagnosed with autism and can relate to their own personal experiences. We’re looking to present monthly events alternating between Forres and Elgin.”
Ray is also set to open ‘Keepsakes’ at 20 High Street with an area dedicated to supporting the charity by selling bric-a-brac. It will be open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10.30am-2.30pm from August 4.
