Dalmally kids paint Calum’s Shed into winning shape

Children from a small community in Argyll  – Dalmally, in Lorn – picked up their paintbrushes this afternoon (30 June 2011) to help prepare a local charity’s tin shed for the final of a national competition.

Staff and supporters of Mary’s Meals are waiting to find out whether their head office, a finalist in the Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition, has won the overall title.

Children from the village of Dalmally visited Mary’s Meals today to celebrate the shed winning the Garden Office category of the competition – and to help paint and decorate, so that it is looking its best ready for ‘National Shed Week’ next week.

Calum’s shed, which has already beaten over a hundred other entries to win its category and reach the final of the competition, is the base for the Argyll charity that provides a daily meal for over 526,000 chronically hungry children in sixteen countries around the world.

The National Shed of the Year award, sponsored by Cuprinol, comes with a £1,000 prize that would allow Mary’s Meals to change the lives of many children. It costs the charity a global average of £9.40 to provide a child with a daily meal in school for a year – so winning could enable 106 hungry children to be fed next year.

Calum’s shed has been at the heart of Mary’s Meals’ work since it began. During the Balkan conflict, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the charity’s founder, borrowed it from his father (Calum) and used it to store donations of blankets and medicines before he delivered them to victims in Bosnia.

‘Mary’s Meals has always had fantastic support from the local community and we were very grateful that a team of young painters and decorators came along to help us today – especially as it was the last day of term’, says Magnus. ‘The shed has been part of our work, feeding hungry children, for a long time and it certainly deserves a fresh coat of paint for the summer.’

Calum’s shed won the Garden Office category in the first round of the competition, which was decided by an online vote. The final will be judged by a panel of experts including TV presenter Sarah Beeny. There are nine sheds in the running, including a pub shed, a museum and a shed shaped like a tardis. The winner will be announced next week.

We could say that Argyll will shed a tear or two if Mary’s Meals doesn’t win?

The photographs accompanying this article are by Mairi Keenan of Mary’s Meals.