The Community Explorers have been working on 2 themes;
To commemorate the centenary of the First World War, the Community Explorers spent some time visiting the local War Memorial and creating Remembrance Stones in memory of all those who died from the village in World War 1. We were surprised at how many men had died from such a small village and we were also surprised at how many surnames we recognised. A couple of people in the group did some research and discovered they had relatives on the Newtongrange Memorial. The stones were placed out in time for Remembrance Sunday with lots of very positive feedback about the stones and act of remembrance this important year.
The Community Explorers recognised that the Village Centre was not looking its best after the demolition of the pool with plain wooden hoardings where the pool used to be. They decided to take action and so every class in the school and nursery created a 2m high piece of art which was hung at the Village Centre. We had reindeer, snowflakes, stars and Santa. We even had a giant Christmas Dinner! The Community Explorers helped to hang the final piece of art and add the finishing touches to our Christmas Art Gallery. Again, there was lots of very positive and kind feedback from the local community as these were all up for the big Christmas lights switch on.
Looking ahead the Community Explorers have been invited to visit the new Adventure play park in Dalkeith and we are looking forward to doing this. We will be keeping an eye out for new developments in the village particularly at the Village Centre and towards the station, including the opening of a Community Café. Finally, we hope to get involved with the Gala Day in June.
Mr Lyall and The Community Explorers.