Once in a lifetime opportunity for East Ayrshire students

Marie Macklin CBE invited students from four East Ayrshire secondary schools to attend last night’s charity dinner featuring former First Lady Michelle Obama.

The students from Kilmarnock, Loudoun, Grange and Cumnock Academies attended the event at the EICC in Edinburgh last night which featured presentations with philanthropy and business leaders.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama, a lawyer, writer, and the first African-American First Lady of the United States, took part in a moderated conversation at the dinner hosted by The Hunter Foundation.

Marie invited the students to this prestigious event after getting to know them as one of the judges for the recent Tom Hunter Challenge. The students invited by Marie did not win the competition but she was so impressed with their efforts that she felt they deserved a place at the event along with the winners from Doon Academy and the runners-up from Stewarton Academy.

Marie said: “I really enjoyed being one of the judges for the Tom Hunter Challenge and thought all those who entered the competition did a great job.

“It is so exciting to see how innovative, creative and engaged with business these young people are and it was a privilege for the HALO to invite them to the Hunter Foundation’s gala dinner.

“Michelle Obama has a truly inspiring life story to tell and I hope that the students had a great time in what was a once in a lifetime opportunity listening to a former First Lady in conversation.”

The Hunter Foundation (THF) is a proactive venture philanthropy that seeks to invest in determining model solutions, in partnership with others, to troubling systemic issues relating to poverty reduction and educational enablement.

THF believe that those geographical factors can be overcome to afford every child an equal opportunity to succeed regardless of location; Kigali, Rwanda or Kilmarnock, Scotland.