Excited cries rang through the streets of Douglas as the RockSolid Dundee Youth Project was unveiled as the winner of The Courier’s minibus competition.
After weeks of intensive token collecting by clubs across Courier country, editor Richard Neville drew the winner and it meant celebration time for the project based at at Douglas and Mid-Craigie Church.
We paid a surprise visit to the charity as the youngsters prepared for their latest community venture.
Courier assistant editor Dave Lord announced the exciting news sparking great excitement among the youngsters, some of whom who had thought the knock on the door was someone delivering pizza!
They spilled out into the night to explore the £40,000 prize, piling into the seats that will take them on adventures all over the country.
Tens of thousands of tokens had been collected by readers keen to secure the minibus for their community group.
After months of collecting, 175 groups were in the running, until RockSolid were drawn at random.
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Youth worker Toni Robertson said the win will make a huge difference to the group, which has struggled in the past with the expense of hiring transport.
“It’s a little overwhelming to know that we’ve just won a minibus,” she said.
“I can’t thank everyone in the community enough. They have all been collecting tokens to help us win. The support has been incredible.
“We haven’t had our own transport and every time we’ve gone on a trip we’ve had to hire a bus.
“That’s cost us about £400 each time and that’s obviously taken a lot of our resources and a lot of fundraising, so to win our own minibus is just fantastic.”The youth project was launched in 2011 and works with 40 youngsters aged 10 to 18 in the east of Dundee.
Mr Neville said the charity is a “worthy winner”.
“It is a shame that there can be just one winner but I offer my warmest congratulations to the RockSolid Youth Group,” he said.