A pitch-perfect solution to honour young bagpiper
The Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust was set up in 2018 following the death of 14-year-old Eilidh MacLeod in the Manchester Arena bombing on 22nd May 2017. Eilidh was a talented bagpiper, and so the Trust was established by her family to ensure that her legacy of fun, friendship and love of music lives on for others.
The charity of just six trustees aims to build confidence and team spirit in individuals and communities through access to the creative arts, in particular to support music education for children and young people.
‘Looking to the future, making a positive difference to others’
So that Eilidh’s Trust could support as many people as possible, two of the Trustees, Paul Hughes and Iagan MacNeil, reached out to the Scottish Tech Army in October 2023 for help with their website, which hadn’t been updated since 2020. The brief was:
to create a new site that can be accessed and updated at all times by the Trustees as a companion to their Facebook and Linkedin pages
to create a page where individuals and organisations can apply for grant funding when available
to create an events page, which details opportunities for visitors to join fundraising activities such as The Kiltwalk and the Trust’s own ‘Tartan and Tiaras’ Ball.
Eilidh’s Trust and the Scottish Tech Army in perfect harmony
Paul says: “During a time of uncertainty with redundancy and job hunting my role as a trustee for Eilidh MacLeod Memorial Trust allowed me to take the lead on a project to build a new website. After working at CodeClan and seeing the great work that the Scottish Tech Army do for the third sector in Scotland I decided to get in touch and see what they could do for us. I wanted to work with an organisation that helped people to build on their technical skills, but also help build our technical library. After a talk through the options and going away and speaking with others we decided to go with the Scottish Tech Army.”
Paul was certain he’d made the right choice when he “found out we were working with volunteers who were at the beginning of their careers in tech as this really aligned with what the Trust does for young people in their music journey.”
A tech solution that hits all the right notes
The project team was led Mick Cooke who, following a career as a children’s TV composer and member of band Belle and Sebastian, had taken his first steps into a new vocation as a web developer. He was joined by Steven Partlow, who worked in food retail for East of England Co Op, but had an interest in software development.
Mick reflects: “The brief was to produce a new website which better reflected the charity’s current aims and values. The previous site had been built when the charity was founded and lots had changed at the Trust since then. The client also wanted a site that was more easily updated, with a form allowing organisations and individuals to apply for funding in a more streamlined way.”
Steven adds that the current website “was running on a platform that was hard to mark updates on, and the Trust would soon have to start paying a lot more to host the site.”
Together they built a website, www.eilidhstrust.org.uk, that met the brief and was up and running within three months.
An outcome that was music to everyone’s ears
Paul, Mick and Steven found working together to be a positive experience and as Mick says: “The Trust that we worked with, I really believe in their values so it’s good to work on that and fun as well.”
Mick is now a junior web developer at Factory73, a provider of .NET solutions for clients such as the NHS and Whyte & Mackay.
“Volunteering with the Scottish Tech Army helped me land my first job in tech. In addition to that I got to learn a bunch of new things, including accessibility and user research. You also get to network and meet people in the tech industry which is something I needed to do” says Steven. He is now a junior developer at Switch Studios, building HTML5 web games for the casino & table game industry. Paul was delighted with the new website and comments:
“Such a professional and consistent service. Couldn’t have asked for a better team. Thank you to Mick, Steven and Joe for all your hard work and the dedication to our charity.”
Since 2019 the Trust has paid out £58,430 in grants and supported 61 organisations, creating a legacy that honours Eilidh’s memory.
Why volunteer for Scottish Tech Army?
Mick’s advice: “Go for it. It’s been a really positive experience for me. The fact that I was able to show the website we worked on as part of my portfolio I think really helped me get the job.”
Steven: “The tip I’ll give you is the more you put in to the experience the more you’ll get out of it.”
Written by: Nicola Clark-Tonberg
