School girls are joint winners of Clan Sutherland Society Young Citizen Award 2022
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Two young girls have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to their communities in Sutherland.
The Clan Sutherland Society awarded the Young Citizen Award 2022 to joint winners after judges decided unanimously that both finalists were equally deserving of the prize.
At a small ceremony at the Golspie Inn on Saturday, Lacey Tunstall and Lia Matheson received their certificate and prize from Dr Lady Elizabeth Costin, representing the clan chief Alistair Sutherland, her father.
Lacey (15) was nominated after winning a Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) Scotland competition that raised £3000 for the Assynt Centre, a community hub where she also volunteers, which runs drop-in sessions, coffee mornings and events for local people in Lochinver and the surrounding area, as well as running a community transport service.
Her nominator, Tina Roney, said: “Lacey nominated the Assynt Centre because she feels strongly about the work and services they provide and how much good they do for the community. She won this competition which resulted in the Assynt Centre receiving £3000, thanks to her good work and efforts.
“When Lacey isn’t at school, she works hard on her parent’s croft which includes looking after the llamas they own. She also works in her parent’s fish and chip van – the Catch Toll – which has just been voted the best fish and chip shop in the Highlands by Inverness Courier readers.
“This young girl is so hard working and has such a caring attitude, so I hope you consider her to be deserving of the Clan Sutherland Young Citizen Award.”
Lacey, who attends Ullapool High School, said she was happy to have been nominated and won the Young Citizen Award, which the Clan Sutherland Society this year ran in conjunction with the Northern Times.
She added modestly: “I won the YPI award for the Assynt Centre and I just help mum with the chippie and running the croft.”
Her mum, Louise Tunstall, explained how important the centre is to the local community.
“They do tea and cakes and activities such as painting classes just to get people together and so the older folk have got company. It’s an amazing place,” she said.
“They’ve also got a community bus which they use to take them out to Inverness for the day and stuff like that. It just gets people out of the village.”
Lacey added: “It’s quite an isolated place but [at the centre] there’s somebody there for everyone, so nobody feels alone.”
Thirteen-year-old Lia was nominated by her teacher at Dornoch Academy, Anne Morrison, after being a very supportive friend to one of her peers at a difficult time.
Lia said it felt really good to receive the award.
“When my teacher told me, I was really proud that I got nominated and I felt really happy when I received it, because I know it meant a lot to the people who helped get me the award.
“I think it’s just really important to remember that you don’t know what people are going through, and always just to be there for them, and it felt really good to know that I was helping them in the best way possible.”
Lia’s mum Louise Matheson said: “We’re all just so proud of her. It’s the Lia we know anyway, she is a kind, caring soul who thinks of other people and it’s just how we know her to be – but to have it recognised I think is really important.”
Each of the girls received a certificate, along with a £150 Amazon voucher. They were also awarded with a cheque for £150 for a charity of their choice, with Lacey choosing the Lochinver Christmas Lights Association and Lia selecting the Brain Tumour Charity in Scotland.
Dr Lady Elizabeth Costin told them: “When I ready both your stories, what struck me was just the real kindness that you’ve shown in your communities and that’s really heart-warming.
“I hope that you both find your experiences rewarding and I think in this busy world it’s really important that we remember to be kind to ourselves as well.”
Mark Sutherland-Fisher, president of the Clan Sutherland Society in Scotland who oversaw the awards, said the awards were originally set up to counter the negative stories we hear too often about young people in society.
The judges from the clan council are made up of the leaders of clan societies in the UK, Australia, America, Canada, New Zealand and Europe.
Mr Sutherland-Fisher said: “Having looked at both nominations, I just couldn’t choose between the girls as to which was the better. I emailed round the council members and said I think we can’t really choose between the girls, and we’ve got to have both of them as winners, and unanimously all the council members agreed that there was no way we could separate them.”
The Clan Sutherland Society Young Citizen Award aims to recognise the achievements of a young person aged between 12 and 14 living in Sutherland who has given back substantially to the community. This year’s winning girls were aged 14 and 12 respectively at the time of their nomination.
The award for 2023 will be launched early next year, with the prize expected to be handed over at the Clan Sutherland Gathering in June.
