22/08/2025
Here’s our letter of thanks, as printed in the Ullapool News this week. The Oddballs organising team is absolutely delighted to let you know that you’ve helped raised an amazing £6425.40 for The Teenage Cancer Trust! Thanks so so much to everyone who took part, donated funds and prizes, gave up free time and made this year’s Oddballs as brilliant as it was!
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As an organising team, we have so many incredible people to thank for making this year’s event such a successful return to glory for Oddballs.
Firstly to Chris, Gina and Vanessa Mauger for graciously agreeing to allow us to hold this year’s event in memory of their beloved Stefan and to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust. The turnout showed just how highly the community thought of Stefan, a talented and brave young man, and the fantastic support for The Teenage Cancer trust will go a very long way to support other families facing the difficult challenges cancer diagnosis can bring. A huge thank you to Gina also for undertaking a power of work to gather together some brilliant prizes for the raffle in such a short amount of time.
Our thanks again to the Ullapool Garden of Reflection committee who requested that their half of funds also be donated to The Teenage Cancer Trust in memory of Stefan. We’re very thankful for the hard work that the UGOR volunteers undertake throughout the year to bring us all such a beautiful space to enjoy in the village.
Thanks to all of the business and people in the community who donated prizes for the on the night winners and for the raffle. We appreciate that it’s not always easy to donate all of the time, so as an organising team we’re very grateful that you all gave some brilliant prizes that have helped raised a fantastic amount for charity.
Thanks to the participating venues for your kind donations and for welcoming all of our wonderful Oddballers through your doors on the evening to fill in their team sheets. We hope they didn’t leave your clientele too bewildered!
Thank you Micheal Beasley for once again providing a great mix of quiz questions for this year’s event. We loved seeing some of the interesting answers that came back to us! (RuMac performs Delilah in the style of Alex Harvey, rather than Celine Dion!)
A huge thank you to Gill Wilson and the whole team at The New Broom who very kindly donated their last two hours of takings on Saturday evening towards the final fundraising amount. We’re very thankful to have been thought of and your donation will make such a difference.
Thanks to The Arch Inn for being our on the night finishing line and providing entertainment by DJ Gary Tuach. It seemed like everyone had a great night dancing away, and it also seems like it’s a night Gary won’t forget in a hurry either! We’re sure it’s not often he sees The Simpsons, The Gallaghers and The Osbournes on the dancefloor on the same night!
We would also like to extend a special thanks to Jozsef, the Arch Inn’s housekeeper, who after hearing what Saturday night’s events were all about and for has requested that his earnings from doing The Dipping Lugger’s ironing for the rest of the year go towards The Teenage Cancer trust. A wonderfully generous gesture, thanks you Jozsef!
A special thanks to Donna Bednarek who came along from The Teenage Cancer Trust to witness the madness and also judge our Best Effort category. Donna had a fantastic night seeing all of your efforts and had a tough time picking her favourite. Thanks also to Oddballs organising legend Robbie Simon, who came down to registration to judge Best Topical costume. It was wonderful to have Robbie join us, and we’re very thankful for the work she and others have done in the past to make Oddballs what it is today.
A big thanks to the volunteers on the evening, to Eilidh, Jessie and Jenny for whipping up donations for the public vote (we’re pretty sure Allan the dog sealed the deal there!) and to Tony and Heidi for directing traffic and keeping all the Oddballers safe as they set off down (or up!) Quay Street.
Thanks to Steven, Nanette and Abigail from Steven Gourlay media and Alexander MacLeod for coming down to the start line to capture amazing photos and videos for us all to look back on and enjoy. We’re really thankful to you all for taking time out of your Saturday evening to provide such excellent pictures and videos for us and they’ll come in really handy for future posts!
Thanks to PC Jo for helping our contestants stay safe on Saturday night and for also running up to the station to copy some more team sheets for us! We were down to 4 sheets at one point with teams still queuing up the hill, so you really did save our day!
Thanks to Katie, Lawrie and the staff at Rhidorroch Distillery for allowing us to set up base at the cafe for raffle ticket selling and drawing. It was lovely to be outside in the glorious sunshine drawing the raffle on Sunday! Thanks to all who bought raffle tickets, ducks for the race and who gave donations.
Thanks to the organising team’s family and friends, who get roped in to tasks (did you all see the picture of Ruairidh on our page on Sunday?!) but whose help and support really do mean the world to us all when things get hectic!
And lastly, but by no means least, thanks to all of the Oddball teams who came out in fantastic force and wonderful effort! This event literally wouldn’t happen if you all didn’t get involved with brilliant imagination and readiness to have some fun, your support for our chosen causes each year makes the world of difference to people and the whole village loves seeing the turnout and costumes. We hope you’re all prepared to make next year just as good, if not even better, that Oddballs 2025!
If there is anyone we have forgotten to thank then please do accept our sincerest apologies. It doesn’t just take a team to make Oddballs happen, it takes the entire village and beyond, and we are so very grateful for all of your support in the months, weeks, days and hours leading up to the event.
We’ll see you in 2026!
The Oddballs Organising Team.
