The School Uniform Bank will be accepting donations at Affinity Sterling Mills from 1 to the 7 of July, 10am – 4pm.
If you have any of the following in good condition in ages 4 – 18 years, your donation would be helping the community, and keeping items from going to waste!
School Clothing
Blazers
Lunch boxes
School bags
Stationery
Footwear
Ties
PE equipment
Nursery clothing
The hard work and dedication of all our amazing volunteers was recognised with The Gate winning ‘Community Group of the Year’ at the Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface Volunteer Awards.
We are incredibly lucky to have such compassionate and generous team of volunteers, committing their time and energy to the benefit of the community, and it’s wonderful to see their contributions recognised.
If you would like to join our brilliant team why not get in touch!
Pop along to The Gate Centre for a coffee and a chat this Friday (14/05/2021) from 4pm to 6pm to attend the above event!
Learn about potential opportunities for you and the benefits of volunteering with our charity.
We look forward to seeing you then!!
Due to the kindness of the Clacks community we were able to provide 568 children with essential school clothing and equipment in July 2020. We were overwhelmed by the support on offer and we would like to say a huge thank you to the parents who donated lots of clothing and equipment on the lead up to the Open Week of our School Uniform Bank.
Also huge thanks to Clacks council for providing the premises, and vans and drivers to transport the stock from Ludgate Church who kindly allowed us to use their premises during the sorting period. We also need to thank Ochilview Housing Association, CTSI, Clackmannanshire Council, and Ludgate Church who provided us with staff to operate the project, we could not have operated the project without their valued help and hard work. Also MSP Keith Brown and Cllr Ellen Forson who lent a hand during the sorting period and open week. Also everyone’s kind donations from Ochil View, Barnardo’s, Menstrie’s Jett Filling Station, Alloa’s Resilience Learning Partnership and many more kind organisations who donated items to help this project throughout the summer of 2020. Parents and children were absolutely delighted to receive the essential clothing and equipment and goodie bags as they exited the hall.
Last but by no means least, we would like to thank Rob McLean, Manager of Tesco’s superstore who kindly, once again, supported this project by donating hundreds of carrier bags and by allowing The Gate to have a donation station for 2 weeks within the store to encourage donations.
A cheerful photograph of some of our volunteers who are working hard to help the Clacks’s Community.
Our staff and volunteers thoroughly enjoyed learning how to use our fire extinguishers in the event of an emergency yesterday at The Gate Centre. They all had a turn at using one of the fire extinguishers and Martin Williams from Secure Fire Protection Ltd also provided our team with some valuable advice on fire management and fire safety. Hopefully we will never need to use the training in real life but at least we are all prepared now in case of an emergency!
We were absolutely delighted to welcome Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent alongside his Private Secretary Nick Turnball, the Lord-Lieutenant of Clackmannanshire Johnny Stewart, Vice Lord-Lieutenant John Spruce and Clerk to the Lord-Lieutenant Craig Dunbar to meet our volunteers. The CEO of Clacks Council Nikki Bridle and Provost Tina Murphy also came along on the day to chat with our volunteers and to learn more about our projects and future plans.
The visit was arranged by Mr Johnny Stewart who said “His Royal Highness, the Duke of Kent was delighted to visit The Gate on Wednesday 30th October 2019. He enjoyed his short visit and was fascinated by what he heard and saw. His Royal Highness was particularly pleased to meet so many volunteers and to hear what they do for so many people requiring help in Alloa”. Mr Johnny Stewart has always supported our organisation and further stated that “The Gate is very special place and he would always look for ways to support us”.
We provided 355 children with school uniforms and equipment this year thanks to donations from our generous community and the help from many organisations, including our wonderful Gate volunteers.
We received 75 referrals and 194 children visited our “Open Week” to access support, supporting 21 schools and nurseries within Clackmannanshire.
We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported this project, including staff from CTSI, Yorkshire Building Society, Ochilview Housing Association and the local SNP office for all their support during the sorting period and our Open Week.
Also, thanks to Paula Paton, Asda’s Community Champion for her continued assistance and Tesco’s customers and local organisations for donating a huge amount of old and new clothing and equipment for this project. Thank You So Much for the Support!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, our Knit N Natter group which usually operates on a Wednesday afternoon is closed temporarily. As soon as we have a date to reopen this group activity we will let everyone know.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.