An International Women’s Day event held at a Lanarkshire gym raised over £1100 which will go to fund scholarships for four budding young actresses.
The fundraising get-together was the brainchild of Kirsty McCourt, from Waterloo, whose initial aim was to help one young women.
The 44-year-old mum-of-two runs her own business, Kirsty’s Travelling Tearoom, in her spare time as well as being a Maintenance Officer for Trust Housing in Wishaw.
However she still found time to organise the hugely inspirational and successful evening at Rivals Gym in Wishaw, which was attended by around 90 local women, and the fantastic total raised was also matched by another individual present.
“It was awesome, absolutely brilliant," said Kirsty. "I have the Travelling Tea Room and I do lots of events. My daughter goes to Go Kids, she’s been there for eight years and has had some amazing opportunities.
“We had a small International Women’s Day thing last year, but it was just a drop-in. It was fun and a lot of people came, but I thought ‘let’s do something more formal’.
"We were going to have it at Go Kids then sold so many tickets we had to move it to Rivals, who were really great at such short notice.
“Councillor Fiona Fotheringham was there, she’s a huge supporter of us. It was a huge party celebrating the women in our community. And the kids from Go Kids were there assisting guests and selling raffle tickets.
“We raised enough money to sponsor a full scholarship for a young woman at Go Kids for a year, that will cover performing arts and singing lessons.”
Lynn McGhee (Owner Inspired by Lynn), and Lynsey McCallum, were also presented with Business Woman of the Year and Woman of the Year awards, respectively, voted online by customers of Kirsty's Travelling Tearoom.
Kirsty and her friends have raised money for charities and worthy causes before and this event wasn’t just about having a good time, it was also about women sharing their life experiences to help others.
“Women here do have better rights than we’ve ever had but it’s also about celebrating that,” Kirsty continued.
“We had guest speakers and two women telling us about their struggles in life and how they overcame them. They were really inspirational.
“One was once 24 stones but is now a life coach and looks like a supermodel. She turned her life around and got married and thought she had her happy ever after, and three months later was diagnosed with cancer but she overcame it and is still here.
"Our other speaker spoke of her mental health issues and how she felt that she never fitted in from a very young age, and how she worked through that and found real friends.
"There’s so much pressure on young women to look a certain way or be on TikTok or whatever. It’s about surrounding yourself with the right people.
“It’s nice for the young girls, my daughter included, to see these women up talking about overcoming their troubles in their own community.
“The feedback has been great and people are already asking if we’re having it next year. It’s been nice to have a really great day, getting people together. We’re still buzzing about it.”
Garry King, principal at Go Kids Performing Arts said: “The money raised at the IWD event along with a donation from another women present will go to fund four scholarships for Keira McCafferty - IWD Full Scholarship; Elise McCloy - Charlie Higgins Scholarship; and Ruby Byrne and Megan Walsh - IWD Singing Scholarships. I’d like to thank every one involved in what was a great event”.
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