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read all about it ... unique new book dedicated to “ the good people of stewarton ”
If you were at Stewarton Higher Grade
School in the 1950s , then in Dunlop Street , you may remember a fellow pupil called Maia ( or May ) Kuplens , a refugee who came to Stewarton when she was eight .
Stewarton Higher Grade School , Dunlop Street ( now demolished )
What you perhaps didn ’ t know was that Maia kept a diary about the welcome and the kindness she experienced whilst growing up in Stewarton . Using her diary and her memories , she has just completed her dramatic but delightful book , ‘ A cup of kindness . A Singular Stewarton Memoir ’, using the pen-name Isla Hawksmoor . Amongst others , Maia has dedicated the book to “ the good people of Stewarton of my generation , who offered friendship , a warm Scottish welcome , and an enduring feeling of roots ”.
The book is 400 engagingly written pages , and begins by telling the dramatic tale of her first years of life as a refugee , and how the family first came to settle in Scotland after the war . It is packed with familiar Stewarton references , and peppered with local photographs . It tells of her experiences and memories of many familiar
Stewarton people , teachers and places from 1952 until 1959 , and her time at Kilmarnock Academy which followed on from that . You may also recognise the picture on the book ’ s cover , and where in Stewarton this picture was taken . Answer at the end !
She and her mother had left the land of her birth , Latvia , after the Russians invaded in 1944 , and the family settled in Scotland when she was four , coming to live in Stewarton four years later . After leaving Latvia as refugees when Maia was just a baby in arms , she and her mother spent several years in East Germany , before undertaking the difficult journey to Scotland in 1948 to be reunited with her father , who by then was about to be released from a prisoner-of war camp in Ayrshire .
After their first four dramatic and incredibly difficult years in Ayrshire , when her father was working as a farm labourer , they finally made their home in Stewarton in 1952 , where her mother had found work at Curries knitwear factory .
Her incredible story is a difficult read in places , especially the poverty and conditions of her first years in Scotland as a little girl before the family came to live in Stewarton . It is so refreshing to see Stewarton and its people being written about so positively , and in such detail , and bringing back so many fond memories of people , places from the 1950s .
In her final year of school in Stewarton in 1959 , Maia was a maid in the Bonnet Guild pageant , and she was the Editor of the Stewarton school magazine that same year . Her final years of school were spent at Kilmarnock Academy , and she later married and settled in Canada with her husband .
Maia says “ I hope my readers enjoy the trip with me back down Memory Lane to Stewarton in the decorous 1950s .”
Her unique and fascinating book is available only from Amazon . ANSWER : The front cover picture was taken on the way out of Stewarton on one of her favourite walks along the Cutstraw Road , just after Meikle Cutstraw Farm , and before the hill leading to the Spot .
Stewarton Youth Group is back ... with just a few slight changes !
After 6 months of the Stewarton
youth group being cancelled , we ' re back up and running , with just some slight changes .
We can now offer virtual youth groups if we can ’ t run the session outside or worse comes to worse there ’ s another lockdown , the parents and guardians will all be contacted about the codes for the logins , the app has been completely made safe over the last couple of months as the council have been using it as way of daily life at the moment , and was tested on the first night back with the Stewarton youth club and young people , loved it , they all engaged in some fun activities from quizzes on movies and television to music , and an all round catch up .
The group will be outside for the moment , at the Standalane park across from the Annick Centre , it will still be on Mondays at a new time of 6PM to 8PM as we ' re getting into the darker nights ( but fingers crossed the group will be back in the Annick centre some time in October , it will then return to the original time of 7PM to 9pm ), sessions are still 50p .
My colleague and I have some great ideas for the Young People to have fun again , whether were doing virtual youth groups or outside or back inside the centre .
The measures in place for outside we do ask when the Young People come along to use sanitizer when they first arrive , and we do ask them to stay 2m apart when their at the group but they will be well occupied so they won ' t even realise their separated from each other .
The group will be maxed out at 20 Young People , so its first come first serve , the Young People are willing if they want to be involved in secure WhatsApp group were myself ( senior youth worker ) and colleague can keep the young people informed about where the group will be , what activities is on offer , whether they have some ideas , and for them to engage with each other and get to know each other better .
To register for the group , visit www . smartsurvey . co . uk / s / youthgroup They must sign up before coming along to the group .