District 1230 Award presentation

A KILCREGGAN Primary School pupil won the 7-10 years age group in the West of Scotland final of the Rotary Young Writer of the Year competition.

And last Tuesday Hpresident Gordon Burgess and the organiser of the local heat, the club’s youth service convener Jack Rudram, travelled to Kilcreggan to present Ollie Watts with his trophy.

Head teacher Frances Bretman kept the presentation a secret from Ollie and his classmates, but arranged for them — and his parents — to be there.

The competition was on the theme of “A Different Perspective”, which, although perceived as very challenging, brought out considerable imagination and skill in the local heat.

Ollie looked at arachnaphobia from the spider's perspective. He told of an encounter between a spider and a human who was afraid of spiders.

Mr Burgess.presented him with the Rotary District 1230 salver to the delight of Ollie’s fellow pupils.

“This is only the second time in the several years we have been running local heats of rotary youth competitions that we have had a West of Scotland winner,” said Jack.

“It means that Ollie beat winners of local heats in Rotary District 1230, which covers the area from Stranraer to Fort William. Now his entry goes forward to the UK final, and we hope he does well there too.”

Mrs Bretman said: “I could not believe it when I received notification of the West win. We are all so proud of Ollie and what he has achieved.”

• ·     Photos by Donald Fullarton.