Chairpersons report on behalf of Klnallen Rural Community Development Association. Year 2020-2021 . In starting Ihis report. I wish to highlight on behalf of KRCDA committee our deepest thanks and appreciation to the local health Ca workers and all essential servtce staff who have worked so diligentty over the past 18 months during what can only be described as the most difficult of drcumstances. Your service wlll hopefully never b8 forgotten. and with continued appwiation shown. Let me continue by saying that as the pandemic hit and continues to impact our locality and the rest of the UK we as a Mm[ttee have had to chango our direction. with this havlng a large Impact on both what we can run and what we are able to offer the good people of this area. Unexpededly we have ended up being busier ihan 8ver befor8 and had the opportunity to offer new seNIs. This resulted in the opening of a local food bank for those experiencing food poverty. The fol1 pantry has in many ways become a bit of a beast regarding volunteer hours each week and the level of work involved. On average we cover around 30 wiles per week. offering everything from thre&day emergency food packs to weekly supp4ementsry hampers to those in financial hardship. This work has been greally helped by our vdunteer Duk.e of Edinburgh students who keep us on our toes and feeling young at hearL They are a di1 to their families and Schools. We had also been offering care calls and a phanacY run for those having to socially isolate. These have now finished with Ihe erKI of aspects of lock down that had made them a necessity. They had their own challenges forthe volunteers as we saw th6
impact on our more vulnerable residents of being isciated from the contact they so desperately needed. We unfortunately did experience the death ofsome of these peoFle and that was - difficult to accepl and process. H¢Jwever. it was our grèatest pleasure to b6 part of their joumey and listen to their stories. On a lighter note, we also joined up to the live he.re love here adopt a spot. and had many enthusiastic new adopt-a-spot litter pickers. We hope to be able to host a thank you BBQ for these wonderful team in nexi few weeks. Part of Ihe grant that we got from 'Sive here love here. enabled us to offer an outside garden space for those needing time away frorn their family during lock down. Wè are thankful that we were able to finish off the largo outslde planters at the back of the hall with trees. plants and shrubs. Alicia Hamllton took on many of the social media interactions induding favourile reopes. craft ideas, and interacting with the hub club aged children which has grown rapidly. Our Soual Media account grows each year with the normal105t cats. found keys and sharing important local information. As a committee we continue our ongoing work developing and maintsinin9 the Infrastructure of the village. As stated. each year we ltinue to suffer from dog excrement being left by some walkers but are thanlrful that this seems to be improving in the hotspots of previous years. We have again and again had to contact council to have them dean up tha park from excess litter. remind thém to empty the bins and to have the area weeded and moss removed from the equipment. This play park is not fit for purF)ose. Is tUated in the wrong area. and is not malntalned as other parks in our council area. We would be wrong not to thank councillor Tim
M¢Clelland who has taken a great Interest in this issue and has facilitated numerous Zoom and on-site meetings with council and the local PSNI community officer. We will leave this as a work in pr(yJress. We were glad to finally see the work at the OSsrOadS finished and It has been widely used. the planting has not tumed wt to be of the quality we had hoped for, but we ntinue to work with the parks department to maintsin this and wTr hopefully have additional spring bulbs planted thls autumn ready for next yéar. We enwsage seasonal planting also next year and are at pr8s8nl awalting confimation on this. As you can see. we have been busy and as the chairperson I would like to offer my deepest thanks to all thosé who have helped us during this past year. As volunteers your tlme Is prfceless to us and It Is never overfooked, thank you. In flnlshlng may l also publicly offer my most sincere Ihanks to all who hav8 made donations to the food pantry vla Harrfs store Kinalk8n and at the Eurospar Dromara. We also would like to thank Marty al Moore m8ats Dromara WI provided meat parcels for a family at Chrlstmas past and to Cambrooke meats Dromara and to Harrfs store Kinallen for the donation of prepared Christmas dinners for those in need, also thanks lo Trua word mlnlstries Klnallen who provlded the starters and desserts for Ihese meals. Combined wè provided a full Christrnas meal to those who really needed them. We would aSso Ilke to thank- Bryan and Jules at the Lagan Vlaw Arms. Dromara who held a BBQ and ralsed enough money to fl113 cartoads wlth much needed grocerles. If I have overlooked anyone it Is with regret for you all have truly represented what is best in our isolated rural Community. As a village with no public transport within our council area your re for each other is uplifting and a pleasure to see.
I recommend this report to you all in the hope you wlll forg5ve my shortcomings and with deep apprecAation to have b8en chalr Ihls past y8ar. my sincere thanks lo the commlttee and my vlce chair. I wlll finish by San9 a masslve thanks to my wlfe Elalne and Son Nathan who have supported me and helped without complaint. Andrew Dickson Chalrp8rson KRCDA