THE young community of South Holland will be singing a very special tune with the help of £5,000 from the Lottery's Award for All programme.

Scarlet Community Music Club is one of four groups in the area and 49 in the East Midlands sharing £359,924 in the latest round of awards.

Scarlet Community Music Club will use the grant to run a six-month series of music and technology workshops for children aged four to 12.

The workshops, running from the end of January to the end of July 2009, will take place every Saturday morning at Marjorum Hall in Gosberton Risegate.

Fifty children will be able to experience creating their very own song, from writing the music to playing the instruments and recording the musical masterpiece.

Participants will also create a storyboard for a video, from choreographing to filming.

Liz Lenten, Secretary and Music Facilitator for Scarlet Community Music Club said: "We live in a very rural area and the activities available for children are limited. The club not only provides something for children to participate in, but enables them to mix with others in an educational and fun way.

"Now we can provide weekly workshops with high quality technological equipment to enable the children to create fantastic songs and videos. We will be filming a video diary for every child to take away with them at the end of the session, and are confident that each one who participates will really benefit from the activities.

Also celebrating is Crowland Scout and Guide Parents and Friends Association, who received £10,000 to improve their scout and guide hut by installing a new kitchen, toilets, flooring and a ramp and wider doors for disabled access.

David Standbridge, chairman for the Parents and Friends Association said: "Our 50-year-old hut is tired and desperately needs renovating. Bringing the building up to date means not only Guides, Brownies, Scouts and Cubs benefit but also other community groups who use it.

"We hope the works will commence by the end of February and be complete by the end of March. However without this grant the works would not be starting at all. The Association is completely bowled over by it. It is brilliant news for us and the community."

Also receiving grants in the South Holland area are South Holland Citizens Advice Bureau who have been awarded £5,713 to upgrade their computer equipment and recruit and train more volunteers, and Flinders Founders who receive £9,959 to provide new skate equipment for a teen park site, allowing children and young people to engage in recreational activities.

Awards for All is the small grants scheme administered by the Big Lottery Fund on behalf of Lottery good cause funders, Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England. The scheme makes awards of between £300 and £10,000 to grass-roots community groups and voluntary organisations.

Following a review of the Awards for All England programme, changes will be made to the existing format of the small grants scheme in March 2009. From 1 April 2009 each of the lottery good cause distributors supporting the scheme will run their own individual small grants programmes. Applications can still be made under the current Awards For All scheme arrangements until 31 March 2009.

For a full list of award recipients visit: http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/england/news.html