The Hamish Foundation 

  Raising funds for community projects in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

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Click here to donate to the Beach Wheelchair project

 

Hamish McHamish (1999 – 11 September 2014) was a ginger cat that lived in the University town of St Andrews, on the East Coast of Fife in Scotland. He came to national and international fame after the book entitled Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town was published. Hamish was believed to bring luck to your business and the town.  If ever there was a queue of traffic it was because Hamish was crossing the road. In 2014 a bronze statue was installed in Church Square to commemorate his life and he presides over the Square with a quietly feline air.

The Hamish Foundation (SCO45383) is a charitable organisation set up by 3 friends who have a love of St Andrews.   Hamish was well loved by the towns people, students and visitors alike and they thought that a charity in his name to raise funds for the good of the town was a great idea. The charity aims to raise money for projects St Andrews particularly focussed on young people.

The charity has donated funds to Home Start, TCCL, V & A Dundee, Beach Wheelchair Project, St Andrews Voices amongst others and has funded projects such as Santa's grotto in partnership with Starbucks and Fife Council and Family app trails with Global Treasure Trails.

In 2018 and 2019 the charity  worked with Tourism St Andrews in their campaign to raise funds for Beach Wheelchairs for the West Sands beach.  This project has been hugely successful and we continue to support this project and other initiatives to continue to make the town more accessible.  

In 2019 The charity also supported St Andrews in Bloom with Sensory planters in Church Square and the Gig 21 initiative supporting local mental health charities.

In 2020 the Covid crisis brought many challenges for the St Andrews community.  We donated funds to various covid response initiatives including the school for IT equipment and worked with the local mask making initiative.  The Beach Wheelchair phoneline was used for the community response to the pandemic. We also worked with Morrisons to supply Easter Eggs to all the Care Homes and Hospitals in St Andrews. We also were donated funds from childrens books written about Hamish.

2021  we were particularly focussed this year in the opening of the new Bruce Embankment toilets with the first changing places facility in St Andrews.

2022 We secured funding for an accessible walkway and viewing platform adjacent to the Beach Wheelchair home on the West Sands. 

2023 We secured funding for more chairs including a walker and a reclining debug.  We also installed a hoist.

2024 With planning permission approved for an extension the additional space has enabled us to continue to extend our fleet with a kind donation of a further debug and the Nomad is on its way.