Appeals

Crusaid, which works to help improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and Aids, is organising a fund-raising gala ballet evening on Sunday 13 March at the Coliseum, in London. The evening will be a tribute to Rudolf Nureyev and those participating include Bryony Brind, Lynn Seymour, Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, Viviana Durante, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Charles Jude and Thomas Edur. Crusaid has raised over pounds 5m since its foundation in 1986, and has given grants to projects throughout the UK, including hospices, and housing, counselling and support services. Recently it began an appeal to raise pounds 1m for a research centre in drugs and treatments for the disease, at Chelsea Westminster Hospital.

Crusaid, 1 Walcott Street, London SW1P 2NG, telephone 071-834 7566.

Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People is appealing for volunteers to help at Lulworth Court, its holiday and respite centre for severely physically disabled adults. Volunteers help with the personal care of guests under supervision of nursing and care staff: they escort guests on outings to public houses, theatres, boat trips and various other and sight-seeing expeditions. Volunteers are accommodated for two weeks at a time. No previous volunteering experience is necessary, but being caring, hard-working, patient and energetic are all useful attributes, says the charity.

Mrs Pat McCallion, Volunteer Organiser, Lulworth Court, 25 Chalkwell Esplanade, Westcliff on Sea, Essex SS0 8JQ, telephone 0702 431725.

The Independent welcomes details of appeals from readers. They should be sent in writing (no more than 100 words) to Gazette (Appeals), The Independent, 40 City Road, London EC1Y 2DB (fax 071- 956 9358). Please include a daytime telephone number.

Two buildings in north-east Scotland are appealing for funds: the Old Church at Tarbat, in Ross- shire (right), and the College of Scalan, in Banffshire (below).

The College of Scalan, Glenlivet, is an 18th-century house where, between 1717 and 1799, some 100 boys were educated in preparation for the priesthood. The Scalan Assocation was founded in the 1950s in order to restore and manage the building, which is listed Grade A and open to the public. About pounds 20,000 is needed to return the building to its original state. The former chapel is considered to be particularly unstable.

The college, with others - situated mainly in the West Highlands - ensured the survival of Catholicism in Scotland during repressive times: Scalan was raided by Hanoverian soldiers in 1726 and burned to the ground after the Battle of Culloden. Most of the young men completed their studies in Italy, France or Spain, but two are known to have been ordained at the college. Their life was frugal; apart from theology, they were taught Latin, Greek, French, Hebrew, Chronology, Geography and Rhetoric.

At the Old Church at Tarbat, Portmahomack, the Tarbat Historic Trust is appealing for pounds 80,000 to complete two projects. At Easter a full archaeological excavation will begin to prove that a Pictish settlement existed on the site: Picts lived on the east coast of Scotland between AD300 and 850. There are traces too of early Christian settlement - fragments of Christian cross-slabs have been found in and near the church. The trust wishes to restore the disused 18th-century church, which has a medieval crypt, so that it can be used for a permanent exhibition about the area's archaeology and early history.

For further information, contact: The Scalan Association, Ogilvie Cottage, Gallowhill, Glenlivet, Banffshire AB37 9DL, telephone 0807 590340; Tarbat Historic Trust, Mains of Geanies, Fearn, Ross-shire IV20 1TW, telephone 086287 443.

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