Spoon Scotland's Annual Burns Supper at Inverleith, Edinburgh was, yet again, an unqualified success. Sponsored once more by Hudson, the evening got off to a flying start when former Scottish Rugby International Referee, Jim Fleming, piped in the Haggis, carried on a wooden spoon and received by Scottish Honorary President, Peter 'PC' Brown.

Following a traditional supper those present were superbly entertained by John Htet Khin, who proposed the Immortal Memory, Jim Leishman the Toast to the Lassies and Dr Judith McClure the Response.  Supporting poetry and song were provided by Billy Young and Rachel Findlay. An evening of the highest calibre, in the presence of a full house, resulted in a further £6,000 being added to Spoon Scotland's funds.

CHILDREN 1ST-bfriends

CHILDREN 1st works with some of Scotland’s most vulnerable children and one of the services that they offer is through bfriends who provide a befriending and mentoring service supporting children and young people throughout Edinburgh. Sadly, fire destroyed one of the bfriends resource bases in the Craigmillar area of Edinburgh together with their minibus in 2005. Wooden Spoon Scottish Region provided £100,000 of support to enable new premises at Castlebrae Business Centre in Craigmillar to be refurbished to re-establish the much needed service in the area as well as replacing the 17 seater minibus. Honorary President Gavin Hastings was on hand to formally open the new facility and hand over the new minibus to Anne Houston, Chief of Executive of Children 1st and he was joined on a tour of the new premises by several members of the Scottish Committee.

PRE-INTERNATIONAL LUNCHES

The standing and reputation of the Pre-International lunches was further enhanced by two hugely successful events held at Myreside on the eve of the Welsh and Irish home fixtures.

Both events were totally sold out and at the first the full house was enthralled by Gareth Edwards's reminiscences of yesteryear coupled with his thoughts on how the match might go on the next day.  Such was the response that circa £10,000 was raised and 60 new Spoon members enlisted on the day. Not to be outdone the second lunch, on the eve of the Irish match, which was MC'd by former Scottish Captain Andy Nicol, supported by guest speaker Graham Allen who proposed the toast to Spoon, raised a further £11,500 with 23 new members signing up.

RIDING FOR THE DISABLED ASSOCIATION

Riding for the Disabled are extremely active in the Edinburgh and Borders Region and their commitment has been significantly bolstered by recent support provided by Wooden Spoon Scotland.

This support has enabled RDA and member group, Equibuddy (who train their horses) to purchase and train a vaulting horse complete with lorry box, as well as undertake improvements to several of their facilities in the Scottish Borders region.

The horse which has been named “Wooden Spoon” has a passport to prove it, and he will be used by groups around the UK in providing sport and therapy for disabled children as well as competing here and internationally.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, who is Patron of Wooden Spoon, RDA and the Scottish Rugby Union, graciously took delivery of the horse lorry box at Murrayfield Stadium immediately prior to the kick off of the Scotland v Wales Six Nations match. National Chairman Roger Davies and Scottish Regional Chairman Charlie Bryden were on hand with Ed Bracher, Chief Executive of RDA, to show Princess Anne around the lorry box before Charlie Bryden formally presented the keys for the vehicle to Her Royal Highness.