Clyde Valley High School pupils raise funds for Margaret Blackwood tenants

Press/News Area

To mark the recent European Day of Languages, the Year Three Modern Languages pupils at Clyde Valley High School in Wishaw held a coffee morning to raise funds for the elderly and disabled tenants of Cala Sona Court, in nearby Netherton.

Dressing up in costumes from countries across Europe, serving coffees to the school’s teaching staff and raffling hampers of European foods and drinks, the pupils raised the remarkable sum of £200.

Meeting up with tenants Ellen McMahon, Theresa Martin and George Henderson to hand over a cheque, Laura Dudgeon and Jordan Kerr learned that Cala Sona Court had been founded in 1959 to house ten displaced families from Eastern Europe. Suffering from TB or other illnesses, the families had been stranded in refugee camps after the end of the Second World War because they couldn’t meet the health standards required to be accepted for immigration.

By the mid-1970s, the number of people living at Cala Sona fell as children grew up and moved out into the wider Lanarkshire community. The development was taken over by Margaret Blackwood Housing Association, who built additional housing for disabled people. Now, thirty years on, the tenants, including three of the original residents who came from Eastern Europe, have just finished moving into brand new, specially designed housing that is much more spacious, cheaper to heat and light, and built from environmentally sustainable materials.

Thanking Laura and Jordan – and, indeed, all their fellow fundraisers back at school – Mr Henderson said that it was just great that the young people were concerned about others in their community. He added that the tenants would be spending the money on a trip, probably in the spring when the weather got a bit better so that everyone could be included.

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