Thistles cap off another successful year of #ThistlesHelps campaigns

– Thistles get ‘rooted & booted’ in recent #ThistlesHelps campaign, installing new footpaths at local community garden –

Throughout 2022 Thistles shopping centre in Stirling has continued to carry out sterling work benefitting the local community through its #ThistlesHelps campaigns. Started in 2021 as the world started to deal with the impact of covid, the #ThistlesHelps campaigns are a way that the centre can do its part to give back to charities and benefit everyone from the Forth Valley region.

As part of Thistles’ commitment to engage directly with the local community and dedicate time to volunteering, multiple staff members offered to carry out essential work at the Braehead community garden in Stirling. The team helped out over a number of weekends in the summer to improve the facilities in the important community garden and allow it to flourish for the year ahead. This included everything from giving the clubhouse a vibrant fresh lick of paint to bringing out a digger to construct new footpaths for the compost area and the bee house.

Gary Turnbull, Centre Director at Thistles, said: “We were delighted to get out and help with the work being done at the Breahead community garden and even more thrilled to be there on the few days of good weather Scotland has to offer. The #ThistlesHelps campaigns have been something that all of us at Thistles have loved getting involved with and we’re excited to look forward to the great work we’ve got planned for next year.”

Daisy Muir, Community Garden Manager at Braehead Garden, commented: “We were thrilled to have the lovely people at Thistles come and volunteer at the garden. The generosity from them to come out and even source a digger meant that we were able to get the footpaths implemented and improve accessibility to the compost area which we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. The garden offers a place of respite to many of the locals and the new improvements are greatly appreciated from all that visit the garden and we hope to see many more come along in the new year.”

Aside from gardening, Thistles has continued to take a hands-on approach to continue to carry on the great #ThistlesHelps work from 2021. One of the biggest campaigns that it carried out this year was the immersive ‘around the world’ mini golf course that was added to the centre in the summer. Completely free to play, Thistles partnered with local sports charity Scottish Sports Futures and had donation stations throughout the course which raised over £1,300 for the charity.

Most recently Thistles has partnered with children’s story author Alan Windram in a creative storytelling competition for primary schools from Stirling and further afield where budding storytellers had the chance to write their own Christmas story. The winner, Emma Russell from St Mary’s Episcopal Primary School, will have her story published in 2023 with all proceeds going to the school’s fundraising efforts. This year across its mini golf campaign and this year’s Christmas grotto, Thistles has raised over £7,300 for charity and had wider campaigns such as the Craft for Good with Start-up Stirling and Coorie Creative which provided knitted goods to those moving into new homes bid to combat the impact of rising heating prices.

The #ThistlesHelps campaigns have been an integral part of the centre’s focus to engage with the local community and Thistles are looking for new community ventures to support in 2023. If you have a local cause you would like Thistles to help with, email

InformationDesk@stirling-thistles.co.uk with your suggestion.

To keep up with the latest at Thistles please visit: https://www.thistlesstirling.com