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Youngsters across Irvine are being sought to help construct a ‘Storybook’ on the town.

The project aims to reconnect older Irvinites with their younger counterparts by collaborating to jot down the history of the town.

Participants are asked to consult their more mature family members over the phone or via Skype and ask them all about life in Irvine when they were children.

The young reporters are encouraged to use the films, photographs and documents of the Irvine Archive as a ‘launch pad’ for their interviews.

All the stories will be collected together, in order to form ‘The Irvine Storybook’, which will be published online and will become part of the written records held by The Irvine Archive.

The names of all those who wrote reports, and the names of their grandparents, will also be added to the Archive as contributors.

Anybody can participate by writing up their reports on the stories that their grandparents tell them, identifying which photo, film or document sparked that memory and sending them to onsideirvine@gmail.com.

The project is the brainchild of both the Irvine Meadow Community Club and Irvine and Dreghorn Co-op.

Community pioneer at the Co-op, Steven Connolly, said: “Weans need something to do at the moment, their grandpas and grannies are stuck indoors and would love to help them with something useful – this project meets these two needs and, as a wee bonus, creates a personal history book.

“It will help future generations of Irvinites to understand what it was like to work, rest and play in the Royal Burgh in the 20th Century.

“Today’s school students will be teaching tomorrow’s weans.”