Seven Rivers at 10TH Annual Missouri Tartan Day Festivities, St Charles

By Seamus Ferguson on April 14, 2010

Seven Rivers Highland Society hosted a very successful Sports weekend at the Missouri Tartan Day Festivities in St Charles MO., April 9, 10 and 11. The weather was story book perfect with temperatures in the 80’s and low humidity, a rarity in this region. The Fourth Annual Women’s Sports Clinic roster of 21 women registered coordinated by Karen Ballinmore of Vancouver British Columbia. Guest instructors were, Sean Betz of Omaha Nebraska and Denise Houseman of Manchester England. The emphasis this weekend was on the women’s Clinic but we did host an 11 man, open competition. As always the athletics were a focal point to the festivities and entertained the crowd all weekend long.

Seven Rivers signed up 8 new members, and raffled off two Claymores. One on Saturday to Joe Moore, of St Charles MO and one on Sunday, to Heather Henderson from the area.
.
Seven Rivers also raffled off an Olympic Dream package donated by Karen Ballinmore consisting of an official 2010 Olympic stocking cap, Olympic Mittens, a Tin of official Olympic Wrigley’s gum, an Olympic neck lanyard, two key fobs and a commemorative Olympic lapel pin. This package was won by Aaron Bashirian of the St Louis area.
A great big thank you to Seven Rivers athletic coordinator Jim Deters for setting up and maintaining the athletic equipment for the event. Thank you to Karen Ballinmore for coordinating the Women’s Clinic and for the generous donation of the Olympic dream Package to our Raffle. Thank you to instructors Denise Houseman and Sean Betz. Thank you to the men’s competition judge, Bob Weigel. A great big thank you to all the volunteers that staffed the Seven Rivers tent. Thank You to the St Andrews Society and S.P.A.E. (Scottish Partnership for Arts and Education) who shared great shortbread cookies with us. And thank you to all the visitors who stopped by, bought Raffle tickets, asked questions or just watched. We appreciate the support of everyone that came by over the weekend.
.

Posted in | Leave a response

Cultural Festival at Union High School, Union Missouri

By Seamus Ferguson on April 14, 2010

On Monday April 12, 2010 members of Seven Rivers by invitation from Dave Hill of the Scottish Saint Andrews Society of St Louis MO, accompanied St Andrews to a Cultural Festival at the Union High School, in Union MO. This was the school’s very first Cultural Day, organized by the Foreign Language Club’s  Cathy F. Kapusciak, Speech and Theater Teacher.

 Seven Rivers President Scott Runnells and Athletics Coordinator Jim Deters also of Seven Rivers, conducted demonstrations and aided select student and faculty members in throwing cabers, stones and weights. Dave Hill, Membership Chairman and Webmaster for the St Andrews Society, and Jim Slack, Website Committee Chairman for Seven Rivers displayed weaponry and briefly explained Scottish History, Kilts, Clans and answered questions from the 800 high school students in the two hours spent at the school. The students seemed eager, attentive and were a pleasure to talk with. It appears they loved the “Dad’s Original Scotch Oatmeal Cookies” and “Walkers” Shortbread cookies provided for them. Professional Bagpiper & Instructor Matt Pantalioni, demonstrated Scottish Bagpipes and entertained the assembly with his World Class Bag-piping. Matt travels to Scotland annually to compete in Bagpipe competitions and ranks in the top five Bagpipers in the world.

 

Matt Pantaleoni, Matt@PipingSTL.com or www.PipingSTL.com

Posted in | Leave a response

Tree Planting

By Seamus Ferguson on March 26, 2010

 
Tree Planting
On Saturday March 27,2010 Ferguson-Florissant School districts Little Creek Nature Area 9:00AM. Seven Rivers Highland Society’s Green Hand did its part by planting trees again. We planted 400 saplings on Saturday morning and he weather cooperated as the rain stayed at bay until well into the evening. This was our third outing to help the Nature area establish tree cover to curb erosion and promote native plant life at the site 195 Dunn RD, Florissant MO 63033 . This is part of an extensive Watershed Restoration project on the property that affects neighboring  properties as well. More events are planned with this project, check back for details and opportunities to roll up your sleeves and help. 

Posted in , | Leave a response

Annual General Meeting

By Seamus Ferguson on March 26, 2010

Seven Rivers Highland Society Annual General Meeting This coming Tuesday March 30, 7:00PM to 9:00PM. At the Florissant Valley Branch, St Louis County Library, 195 South New Florissant Road, next to Bangert Park. All members are encouraged to attend.

Posted in | Leave a response

April Kilt Night

By Seamus Ferguson on March 26, 2010

 

 

Come join Seven Rivers Highland Society as we celebrate our April Kilt Night. We will gather at The Old Mill Stream Inn at 912 South Main Street, St Charles Friday, April 9, 2010 from 7:00PM till the last Scott leaves. Come for food come for drinks come for Scottish revelry and fun. Old Mill Stream’s Web site is

 

http://www.millstreambar.com/index.php.

 


Friday also kicks off the Tartan Day Festivities in St Charles at River Front Park, Celebrating Tartan Day (April 6). It was on this date in 1320 that the Treaty Of Arbroath was signed, signifying the beginning of the Declaration of Scotland’s Independence from England.

Posted in | Leave a response

Seven Rivers helps the Boy Scouts

By Scott on December 13, 2009

On Saturday November 12, 2009  Cub Scouts from the Rockwood School District from the St Louis area held a Cultural day. Seven Rivers Highland Society and St Louis St Andrew Society members as well as the  St Louis Cabermen  (many of whom are Seven Rivers Members) hosted the event to help  the Cub Scouts earn language and culture Belt loops. The Scouts learned basic words in Scots Gaelic, the History of Weaponry,  Highland dress, Bagpipes and Athletics. The Scouts were also treated to Irn Bru (a Scottish soft drink since 1901) and shortbread cookies from Nancy’s Sweet Nothings (1312 n 2ND Street, St Charles MO).

According to parents, the event was a smash as they were astounded that we were able to keep the youngsters attention for almost 2 hours. We  have an opportunity to do more events like this with Scouts in the region. Plus Culture related presentations teaming again with the St Andrew Society and  SPAE    www.stlspae.org (  Scottish Partnership for Arts and Education) with cultural presentations in schools as well. If you would be available to help with some of these presentations during the weekday please let us know on the contact us page. Together our purpose is to educate the public to the Scots contributions to the building of this great Country we live in and to the World.

Posted in | Leave a response

Tree Planting

By Larry Albertson on November 16, 2009

On Saturday, November 21 2009, men in kilts from the Seven Rivers Highland society (and the lovely ladies from Seven Rivers!) used their might to plant trees at Little Creek Nature Area in the Ferguson-Florissant School District St Louis County MO.

The Little Creek Nature Area is the focus of a $ 800K watershed restoration project designed to return a small urban stream to a cleaner, more “hands-on” learning environment for the 12,000+ students that come to Little Creek for science education each year from the Ferguson-Florissant School District. Jack Bowles, Teacher in Charge of Little Creek and the watershed restoration project manager, has started the process with removal of invasive honeysuckle and replanting native trees on 30 of the 96acres.

The “lions share” of the restoration work began in 2009, funded by grants and gifts from the EPA and members of the Little Creek Watershed Restoration Steering Committee: Centocor Biologics, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Great Rivers Greenway, Missouri American Water, Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation, MO Dept. of Conservation, MO Dept. of Natural Resources, MSD, North County, Inc., St. Louis Christian College, St. Louis County Soil & Water Conservation District, The City of Florissant, The Ferguson-Florissant School District, The Open Space Council and the Special School District.

Seven Rivers has chosen clean water projects as their philanthropic priority, believing water quality is critical to the health and welfare of our community, so they have pledged to assist with the Little Creek Watershed Restoration in any way that they can.

So, if you’d like to stop by Little Creek to find out more about Seven Rivers, or the Little Creek Restoration project or see the 97 trees we planted  on Saturday morning, November 21, 2009 .  Please do so, they are located at 2295 Dunn Road, Florissant, MO. 63033. You may reach Little Creek staff at: 314-831-738

Posted in | Leave a response

Autism Walk

By Administrator on July 3, 2009

October 10, 2009: Autism Walk - Seven Rivers Highland Society participated in the St Louis MO  Walk for Autism. The Walk was about a two mile trek around the Art Museum in Forest Park. At present  St Louis alone raised , (as of 10/10/09) $939,406.00. With pledges still being received and changing the total almost daily. Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that effects 1 in 150 children. Boy’s are four times more likely to have Autism than girls and there is no prevention, fully effective treatment or cure. Research shows that early intervention is very important to gain maximum benefit from current therapies. For more information about Autism or to find out what you can do to help, go to their website at www.walknowforautism.org . If you would like to Join Seven Rivers and help make a difference in OUR community contact us and find out how together, we can make things better for everyone. Thank you.

Posted in | 1 Response