A big thank you to everyone who turned out this Saturday 26th June 2021 for our Gala Day car tour. Once again due to COVID restrictions our Gala Day celebrations were curtailed but certainly not diminished. Gala Day witnessed an excellent doorstep turnout and we thank for you showing your support to the P7 Leavers who missed out on being part of the Gala Court and Gala Ceremony. Despite all this we have had a wonderfull Virtual Gala Week and many prizes have been awarded to those lucky and well deserved winners. Have a look through the Gala Day section and view the photos taken on the Day. Once again I thank the Gala Committee for maintaining the Gala spirit through these difficult years and keeping our Gala traditions alive. I would also like to thank Keith Whitton our Honorary President for undertaking the laying of the wreath at the War Memorial, lest we forget and Keith undertook his duties following the Gala Car tour which played the pipes throughout the afternoon. Well done all and a further thank you to those who kindly handed in donations and sent letters of thanks. We look forward to seeing you all next year and hopefully back to our wonderfull Gala on the Village Green.
Once again a super turnout for the Fancy Dress and Best Decorated Window, really tough for the judges this year, we thank all entrants, it really is appreciated and shows your continued support for the Gala despite this being such a depressing year. Tomorrow we look forward to our traditional Gala Day and we shall have the Gala car out once again with the sound of the Scottish Pipes echoing around the Village, please help us celebrate this day and show your support for the P7 kids who missed out in their big day. Have a wee celebration, there are free flags in the Village shop for the kids, we will see you all around 2 pm with the gala tour which will end with our Honorary President Keith Whitton laying a wreath on the war Memorial on behalf of the Gala and our community. Once again we appreciate eveyones contribution and participation, this really does help lift our spirits in this tough year due to the on going covid. Happy Gala day everyone.
A big thanks to all those entries in the Fancy Dress last night with all winners, tonight we have the Gala Quiz so best get your entry emailed to the gala email address by 09:30 pm tonight, good luck everyone.
Gala Week continues with our Pet Fancy Dress tonight, please see winning entries in the Pet section. Also note we have now opened up the Quiz to allow you plenty of time to get your answers and entries emailed into Gala email address by Thursday 09:30 pm, meantime lets have a really good participation in Wednesday nights Fancy Dress, all age groups welcome and cash prizes up for grabs, just send in your photos with your details. We look forward to your entries.
Gala Week has begun with a cracking start , our first winner of the week with £10 prize going to Niamh Cavanagh, check out all the best joke entries in the joke section. Tonight we held the Doorstep Disco , see all photos in the Doorstep Disco section, thank you to all the kids who really took part and enjoyed the dancing in the streets, keep it up kids and get your entries emailed in for the remaining events this week.
June 2021 – The committee can now confirm that unfortunately there will not be a Gala Court or Ceremony for the year 2021. It is with much regret the decision was taken but with COVID-19 restrictions still in place there was insufficient time for the committee, parents and children to prepare for such an event. As previously indicated the committee will run a Virtual Gala Week of events which was hugely successful last year. The week of events are detailed in the adjacent column. We hope everyone enjoys the Gala week and we look forward to your participation in the many events.
Finally please show your support to the children of this years Primary 7 class, this is the first year since the 2nd World War in 1945 that we have not held a Gala Day and Crowning Ceremony, we share their disappointment and we wish the children all the best in the future and the best of luck in the transition to Grammar School later this year. In the meantime we hope everyone commemorates Gala Day on 26th June and has a wee celebration in their own way.
April 2021 – The committee are writing to update you with the latest information on this years Gala Day, normally by now our committee would have attended the Primary School to carry out the election of the Carstairs & District Gala Court for 2021 and plans for the court arrangements and fundraising would have been well underway, however with the many restrictions still in place all Gala Day plans for 2021 have been on hold. The committee have been holding out in the hope that COVID-19 restrictions may have been eased to allow the opportunity to plan and progress the 2021 Gala Day but unfortunately whilst some headway has been made the current situation remains bleak for such a public event.
The Gala Committee recently held a meeting to discuss last years Gala events and to discuss our options moving forward for this years Gala Day. The committee have explored a number of ideas and discussed at length the challenges we faced last year and with all things taken into consideration we have made the very difficult decision not to proceed with Gala Day 2021.
We understand that this will be very disappointing news for the children of P7 who may have been looking forward to being part of this years Gala Court, it is not a decision we have taken lightly and it really is very disappointing for us and I’m sure the whole community too.
We do have plans to go ahead with a virtual Gala Week as we did last year, this was really popular and allowed us to involve the community with different events. We would also like to print up a Gala brochure as we do every year, and our hope is that we can have a feature on the children of P7 who would have been part of this years Gala Court.
We hope everyone fully understands this unusual predicament and maintaining the health and safety of our community within the current COVID-19 rules and regulations remains the priority.
2nd December 2020 – In light of the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions it has been impossible to hold this years Gala AGM which was due to take place in November 2020. The committee therefore have postponed the AGM until such times that it can be held safely and within government regulations. The committee will review the situation again in January 2021 where hopefully more information regarding forthcoming vaccinations and reduction of restrictions will be available. At this moment the committee are not in a position to confirm wether the 2021 Gala Day will take place. In the interim we shall continue to monitor the situation and provide updates when appropriate. The committee have published the 2019 – 2020 Annual accounts for full public viewing, the accounts can be viewed in the Gala Accounts 2020 page within the Gala Website.