Meet Mandy!

Mandy Thomson works with the Customer Services team as a Contact Centre Advisor, originally hailing from Port Seton, she now lives in Dunbar.  Mandy has been with the team for two years now and “loves it”.  Her day-to-day duties with the team are focussed on helping callers with a diverse range of enquiries. 

Mandy is also a professional artist and exhibits her work at Dukes of West Barns.  Working from her home studio (which she built with her husband during lockdown) she paints in oils and inks, focusing on the drama of the ever-changing sea and sky, our connection with them and the emotions they bring. 

A keen open-water swimmer, she swims daily and through her morning swims, she has connected with two other local artists, Catriona Simpson and Jo Lee.  These three women have encouraged each other in their art and dreamt about how they could collaborate and support one another.

For the first time they will be exhibiting together and selling their work at a pop up exhibition ‘Forged by the Sea’

Mandy is offering 10% off to ELC badge-holders

Follow this link for more information about the exhibition.

For more about Mandy’s art visit www.mandythomson.com

Meet the Amenity Services Play Squad!

Colin, Gary and Blair look after the 121 play areas across East Lothian which are owned and managed by the council. 

As well as maintaining all of our much-loved play areas, Colin and Gary are both RPII qualified (Register of Play Inspectors International), so are qualified to inspect them too. This is Gary’s main role – inspection and day to day maintenance, ensuring all our play equipment remains fit for purpose and continues to meet standards.

Colin oversees the squad’s work but also leads on installing new play areas and renewing existing ones. Installation work is generally a two-person job, so Blair predominantly be assists Colin with this work. This is very skilled and precision work, to ensure new play equipment is correctly installed and meets all standards. The fantastic and popular play areas the squad has installed over the years [including the one in Neilson Park where the photo was taken], with a range of exciting, challenging, inclusive and varied play equipment, is testament to the skills and dedication of this excellent small team.

"I have been Head Operative for the Play Squad for 15 years now and have enjoyed the job a lot, I find it very rewarding particularly when we building new parks. This  job can bring its challenges and a lot of problem solving but I enjoy that as we like to learn new skills and it gives us a greater sense of achievement." - Colin Shearer

Gary enjoys this line of work as it allows him to work all around the county and not having to work in one place, being a trained mechanic it allows him to use his skills making and repairing play equipment and keeping the parks safe.

Blair has recently started but enjoys learning new skills and the knowledge required to build and maintain the parks.

Stephen Wands (pictured far left), Club and Community Sports Development Officer, is also working for part of his time on play areas currently, with a focus on the public consultation and engagement for renewal projects. Steve has considerable experience through his role with the Active Business Unit, where he is heavily involved with delivery of sport and recreation projects including Pump Tracks development. He has recently led on the development of the new play areas web pages.

New play areas web pages launched

Well done Alison!

A massive congratulations to Alison Lynch, Senior Practitioner in Justice Social Work, who has just taken the title of World Champion in the Master 4, Rooster Division at the World Master IBJJF Brazilian Ju-Jitsu Championships in Las Vegas.  This title makes her the first ever Scottish IBJFF female world champion.

Ciara Webb, Alison's line manager said "I'm so proud of her"

Speaking about  her win, Alison said "Dreams do come true. I've dedicated myself to this for so long and I'm proud that all my hard work came together on the day."

Team to tackle Loch Ness to raise funds for adoptive families

Members of our Adoption and Kinship Team are lacing up their trainers and preparing to take on the Loch Ness Marathon on 29 September this year to raise money for Adoption UK Scotland.

Adoption UK Scotland provides a range of services throughout Scotland and work to get the right support at the right time, from childhood into adulthood, for everyone who can't grow up in their birth families. 

Our Adoption and Kinship Care Team Leader Robyn Elliot and Senior Practitioner Ian Burdett will be joined by local adopters Matt and Tessa to take on the scenic point-to-point route alongside Loch Ness, finishing in Inverness.

Robyn says: I’m not sure what I have let myself in for, but I’m reminding myself that it’s for a really good cause and monies raised will go towards supporting our adoptive families.

Adoption UK Scotland works to connect people across the adoption community, support adopters and adoptees, and work with them to influence the decisions that affect their lives. In the past, fundraising has helped to subsidise events such as a weekend residential event at Wiston Lodge, as well as other family events.

As an adopter, Matt finds such events very useful, saying: "When East Lothian Council reached out asking if anyone wanted to run this marathon, I jumped at the chance. Having not run a marathon since adopting it was a great excuse to get back into it. Also, after adopting our daughter just over four years ago, Adoption UK and East Lothian Council arranged events has been a great opportunity for us and our daughter to meet other adopters and find others we can share with." Tessa agrees, adding: "Adoption UK have been hugely supportive though out our adoption journey so I am delighted to be running my first marathon for this worthy cause."

Sponsor Ian, Robyn, Matt and Tessa as part of Adoption UK Scotland’s team through Justgiving and make a difference for adoptive families: