While on business in Aberdeen this week, HRFCA met up with our friends from veterans’ charity Erskine to admire their recently repainted bench in Seaton Park.
The bench was being used by Aileen Kearsey, a former WRAC soldier who had served with 13 Signals Regt in Londonderry in Northern Ireland and in Berlin in the then West Germany in the 1970s.
Aileen, who declared the bench ‘very comfortable’, chose it out of many free at the time, saying: “I think I was drawn to it!”
The bench had earlier been officially unveiled by the Lord Provost of Aberdeen, George Adam. It is painted in the colours of the medal ribbon which features on the Erskine logo.
The repainting was part of the city’s friendly bench project which is one of the most recent initiatives to arise from the Big Aberdeen Event in September 2014 and is supported by ACVO TSI in partnership with Aberdeen City Council. Third sector organisations were invited to claim and design a bench in the city to raise awareness of the support and services they provide, with Erskine jumping at the chance to get involved.
Erskine has four care homes in Scotland, providing nursing, residential, respite and dementia care to veterans and their spouses. The charity supports over 1,000 people each year.
Michael Parkes, Erskine Community Fundraiser for the North, with Aileen Kearsey beside the repainted bench in Seaton Park.
