Helping Out The Families And Survivors Of Dunblane: A Magical Gesture From The CSA.
Dunblane haunts Scotland to this day.
It was the ultimate unthinkable tragedy, and it happened right on our doorstep.
For a while in 2003, I worked in the town whilst I was a student at Stirling and to say I fell in love with the place, and the friendly people there, is an understatement. The event itself has always tugged at me because of that and I’ve written on the subject in various blogs and at various times, in an effort to understand it better.
But it defies understanding.
It defies rationale.
What the Celtic Supporters Association did in the aftermath of it is all the more special to me because of how I feel about what happened there.
Their gesture resonates today.
It was incredible, and it was far-reaching. It helped tremendously.
After the horror of the day, Ron Taylor, the headmaster of Dunblane Primary, told the press that what he wanted, more than anything, was to see the children smile again. The Celtic Supporters Association took up his cause.
Their fund-raising drive was, and will always remain, an incredible feat which accomplished everything it set out to do and more.
Reaching across the global Celtic Family and beyond (press reports talk of a Rangers fan who gave £200 – he wasn’t the only one, not by a long way) it eventually raised over £100,000 and every single penny of it went to making magic literally happen.
That money was used to send the twelve surviving children from the class, along with their families; mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, to Disney World, as guests of the Association and the Celtic Family as a whole.
Not only did that cash pay for the trip, but it made sure that the families had enough spending money – £1300 each – to enjoy themselves to the maximum.
It is an unbelievable kindness.
It had a startling impact, and not just on the families and children.
Gerry Madden of the CSA, who accompanied them on the trip, like most people hadn’t really grasped the full horror of what transpired that day until, as he put it, “when the children went into the swimming pool and you saw the gunshot wounds … It was great to see their excited faces. But when I was there my mind was with all the children who died.”
The families themselves talked afterwards about how it impacted on them, and the wee ones in particular.
“We see quite a difference in Mark since the trip,” said Jim Mullen, one of the dads. “It was a really good time for him to go. He came back singing and laughing which he hadn’t done very much throughout the year. We are so grateful.”
I can think of few more important campaigns our fans have been involved with, and few causes more vital than helping those wonderful children laugh again.
