A PE teacher has been busy raising thousands of pounds for his local community.
Scott Birse – Banchory’s answer to Joe Wicks – has been offering free online high intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions for the last 12 weeks.
Hundreds of people have taken part in the sessions and together helped to raise a hefty £2,500 for charity.
A total of £500 apiece has gone to the Banchory Resilience Group, Banchory Paths Association and the Scottish Ambulance Service (Banchory Station) with the remainder of the funds still to be distributed.
Mr Birse, a PE teacher at Alford Academy, said: “There was no way I wanted to charge during the pandemic and the intention from the start was to raise money for local groups.
“I’m gobsmacked at the amount of people who have committed to taking part in the sessions.
“There’s a lot of people who might not have had the confidence to come to a class before, but now can do so from the comfort of home.
“I’ve learnt a lot myself over the last couple months.”
Mr Birse is also the organiser of Run Banchory, which kicked-off last year.
This year’s 10k event was meant to be held on June 14, so rather than cancel it completely, it was decided to organise a virtual event where people walk, run or cycle near to their homes.
Mr Birse added: “The response from the community has been amazing. I’ve been blown away.
“Even with the bad weather on Sunday a huge number of people still came out to play their part – one local fireman even ran all the way from Aberdeen to Banchory.”
A further £2,500 was raised through the Run Banchory event.
Moving forward, Mr Birse hopes to buy ice creams for every primary school pupil in Banchory, but if regulations don’t make that possible for a substantial amount of time, then he will make direct donations to primary schools in the area.
To find out more about his efforts, visit SB Fitness Banchory on Facebook.
