A FATHER and son from Annan are gearing up to climb three peaks in one day to raise cash for their local pigeon homing club.
After joining Annan and District Homing Club earlier this year, 12-year-old Dennis Anderson found that the group were desperately in need of some fresh funds.
“There’s just loads of work that needs done,” Dennis’ dad, Craig, said. “The club’s hardly been touched for years – they’ve got a leaking roof, problems with the windows, plumbing, electrical work, so he just decided that he’d try and raise some money to help them out.
“He’s not figured out in what order yet, but we’re going to be climbing Burnswark, Criffel and Scafell Pike in the same day.”
The youngster’s newfound hobby is an unusual one for a 12-year-old, however Craig said it’s part-influenced by his own dad – Dennis’ grandad – who’s “always had pigeons”.
He added: “His papa’s a member of the pigeon club. There’s a lot of young kids that are into it but, it’s mostly with their dads and papas but Dennis has actually got his own loft now, he’s registered. Instead of racing with other people’s birds, he’s got his own and he does everything and looks after them.
“He’s racing once a week on the weekends and then usually midweek they’ll go to Appleby and fly home and that keeps them going until the weekend, but they get let out every day and do some exercise around the house.”
And ahead of next Sunday when they’ll take-on the three hill challenge, the pair have been training and pre- paring themselves.
Craig said: “We do a bit of dog walk- ing but since we’ve decided to do the fundraiser me and him have been up Criffel a couple of times, up Burnswark a couple of times and we’re going to do all of them this weekend, not in the same day but split over two days and that’ll get us ready for next weekend doing them all in a oner.
“We’re going to hand it over to the people who run the club – we were hoping to raise £1000 but we’re over £2000 already.”
- To donate and follow updates from Dennis and Craig, visit www. bit.ly/3ur1TrM.
