A COMMUNITY initiative to bring some Christmas cheer to lonely Wee County residents has highlighted the scale of isolation in the area.

As reported last week, children from Alloa Athletic's Wasp Community Club were recently out and about in Clacks to deliver some 70 Christmas hampers to lonely residents as part of the SPFL Trust Festive Friends programme.

With the hampers delivered, it was found that the need to ensure elderly people do not become isolated is greater than ever with hopes to put an increasing pressure on and tackle the issue head-on.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Wasp Community Club secretary Vicky Jess explained that the deliveries have genuinely made a difference to the lives of those they reached out to.

She said: “What delivering the hampers highlighted was how lonely a lot of elderly residents are in the area.

“As a club, what we are planning to do next year are quite a few different projects involving the community.

“We are going to keep with football project but we are looking to get more involved in community projects away from football because we've noticed that there's so much we could do to help the community, especially in this economic crisis we are having just now.”

Young people from the club's girls' as well as 2012 and 2013 teams were all out and about last weekend to deliver hampers as part of the initiative.

For some, according to Vicky, it was the only visit some residents received this year, other than from paid carers.

She added: “We are associated with a football team, obviously, but we are also a community club – that's where we are headed now.”

With plans to be scoped and developed next year, Vicky hopes to run an initiative which will see isolated people invited to the grounds to watch a match along with food and transport there and back provided.

There are also hopes to offer more visits and time to people who received hampers.

The club secretary, who started a few months ago, continued: “It highlighted to me how many people are out there in the community who just don't have a contact with anybody.”

The hamper-giving initiative was in its seventh year, and for the first time all 42 SPFL clubs took part.

While this meant there were somewhat less hampers to go around in the Wee County, it is understood 70 were delivered in the area over the weekend.

The campaign was supported by £133,000 of funding with more than 4,000 people supported across Scotland.