Moray event celebrates 999 services

Emergency heroes will be honoured at the third Moray Blue Light Festival on Saturday, 24th June at UHI Moray. The valuable role played by the police, fire, RAF, coastguard services and many more will be highlighted during the festival from 12pm – 3pm at the Alexander Graham Bell Centre, UHI Moray in Elgin.

The event was initially held in 2019 and organised by students on UHI Moray’s Events Management Course. The event was successfully brought back after the pandemic last year and is now organised by UHI Moray with the now graduated students still being involved in the planning and implementation of the event.

‘Celebrating the services, educating the public’ is the theme of the afternoon. “This is a chance to meet your real-life heroes and see what they do on a daily basis.” said Lorna Leil, Events Co-Ordinator for UHI Moray. “We are hoping to raise awareness of the services and also bring the local community together to celebrate them.”

As well as the well-known 999 services, in attendance will be North East Rider Volunteers, 2622 Squadron from RAF Lossiemouth, Scottish Charity Air Ambulance, Cadets and local organisations who offer help and support such as Moray Wellbeing Hub, Moray Co-Responders, Car Seat Safety Moray, Keirans Legacy and many more. Basic CPR will be taught by SAS Wildcat and Save A Life Scotland throughout the event.

There will be children’s inflatables and rides, facepainting, some child friendly vendors and a huge array of food stands. UHI Moray’s Hospitality and Tourism Academy will be providing cupcakes for decoration, and Fika Child and Family Centre will be running 2 Moo Music sessions during the day.

“The previous 2 events were very successful, with around 1500 people attending last year” said Lorna “Sirens were ringing around the carpark as youngsters were allowed experience inside of the emergency vehicles – including being locked in the back of a police car!”

The services who appeared in previous years are eager to return and get involved with the public again. A previous exhibitor at both events, North East Rider volunteer, Patrick Costello, said “The event was amazing. I don’t think we expected this amount of interest.” He explained the opportunity for the awareness of the group was invaluable.

For more information and updates, search for Moray Blue Light Festival on Facebook or Instagram, or email: agbcevents.moray@uhi.ac.uk

Over the last six years we have had many fabulous competition prizes. I am always delighted to receive feedback from the winners, telling me how much they have enjoyed their prize.

Lorna Ewen was the lucky winner of the Memory Bear from Shona of Memory Bespoke Creations in the February/March issue and Lorna very kindly e-mailed me with her story and some pictures.

Lorna said “It is a coincidence really, I had been up my loft looking for something, and came across a lovely dress I had kept of my late mothers, which must be about 40 years old. I washed it and it looked like new. I only try competitions that take my interest and I saw this one in the last edition of the Lifestyle magazine, that I really enjoy, and entered. I couldn’t believe I had won, I felt it was meant to be.

I met up with Shona who is a lovely lady and very creative, she used the material and the buttons to create the most lovely bear and incorporated the tapestry of a key ring belonging to my late dad and added a pocket to hold a small keepsake also of my dad’s. I would just like to give a big thank you to Shona Memory Bespoke

Creations and highly recommend her business”. Thank you to Lorna for sharing her story and we are so glad she now has her beautiful Memory Bear.

You could be the next lucky winner of a Lifestyle competition prize, just remember to tell me the codes and don’t forget your contact details. This issue as always, has some fabulous prizes. Will you be the lucky winner of a pair of weekend tickets for Speyfest, I know last year’s winners had a blast.

First opportunity to see Skerryvore is at Portsoy Boat Festival on the 1st July if you win the two tickets kindly donated

If you read the Beach Hut food review, I’m sure you will definitely want to be the winner of lunch for two that they have generously offered as a prize.

A gorgeous Hearts of Grampian Teddy Bear is another fabulous prize offered by the Keith Kilt & Textile Centre. If you buy their raffles online they have some more incredible prizes.

If you fancy going to any of the Games and Shows advertised in this issue, then enter this one and you’ll have your choice.

Closing dates: 25th July 2023

• Email: competitions@lifestylemoray.scot