About Us
In January 1984 the Stromness Practice Patient Participation Group took the decision to launch an appeal for a minibus for the residents of St Peters Home and the elderly in Stromness. In 1987 a committee was formed to ‘promote the running of a holiday club for the elderly and disabled’. Since 1998 the group has been referred to as the Hamnavoe Carers.
In 1991 a grant of £22,000 was received from Orkney Islands Council for the purchase of a minibus and a new logo specially designed by school children was unveiled.
In 1998 the group received charitable status. This enabled the group to apply to the National Lotteries Charities Board for a grant to purchase a new minibus. In 1999 the Hamnavoe Carers were awarded the sum of £34,153 and the bus was purchased later that same year. In 2006 a grant of £14,000 was received from Orkney Islands Council for the purchase of a minibus costing £32,659.
In 2018, Hamnavoe Carers changed its status to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) and the purpose was amended to include people residing in the area of the West Mainland, Orkney, who are in need because they are disadvantaged due to age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage.
Currently the group provides shopping trips, day trips within Orkney, an annual trip south, and an annual Christmas party. There are various fundraising events, including monthly whist drives, which are held to raise funds.
The group’s success, and the service it provides, would not have been possible without the volunteers who have served on the committee, driven the bus and provided baking and hosting for the whist drives.
Committee
- Sally Bartkowiak, Chair
- Donna Ritch, Secretary
- Margaret Richardson, Treasurer
- Ingrid Flett, Vice Chair
- Frazer Campbell, Transport Convener
- Patricia Breck, Member
- Rosemary Clouston, Member
- Julia Ireland, Member
- Doreen Garson, Member
