Volunteers walk the Forth Road Bridge for Bear Appeal

Nov 3 2011 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

walk

DOZENS of volunteers raised thousands in a sponsored walk on the Forth Road Bridge for the rescue of three stricken circus bears.

Participants ranging from the age of four to 81 braved high winds to complete the 5km event — spurred on by the Five Sister Zoo’s lucky bear mascot.

Organisers were heartened that so many members of the local community, came out in force to help raise funds.

Walkers included cubs from the West Lothian Cub group and girls from James Young High School wearing their pyjamas and slippers.

One of the volunteers Alison Whitelaw managed to raise £900 alone — all money is due to be handed in by November 14.

The zoo have so far raised £33,000 towards their £80,000 target to transport Carmen, Suzy and Peggy, from homelessness in Belgium to their new specially-built enclosure. Funds from the sponsored walk on Sunday should help them towards the halfway mark.

The bears — Suzy, Carmen and Peggy, spent much of their life living in cramped cages measuring just 10m square.

“We’ve been so overwhelmed by people’s generosity, we are so grateful for the on-going support we receive.” says Five Sisters owner, Brian Curran, who managed the walk, despite recovering from a broken hip.

“Everyone is doing such a wonderful job at raising funds for these circus bears. We are one step closer to bringing them home for Christmas.”

After hearing about the success of the sponsored walk a group of local climbers from the Wester Inch Mountaineering Club, Bathgate, intend to take part in a sponsored climb of the Five Sisters of Kintail on Sunday, November 13 to raise funds for the bears.

The Five Sisters of Kintail is a ridgeway walk, taking in three Munros, being both a steep ascent and a challenging climb it will prove testing to even the most experienced climber.

The choice of climb was made because of the zoo’s name.