Pupils and teachers from four Crosby schools have joined forces and taken on some incredible fundraising challenges to raise money for St. Joseph’s Hospice.
Sacred Heart Catholic College, St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’, Great Crosby and Ursuline Primary Schools all set their pupils the challenge of coming up with exciting ways to support the hospice and fund patient care throughout the coronavirus crisis.
Donations are still flooding in but, so far, they have raised over £5,300, which will be split between St. Joseph’s Hospice in Thornton and Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The schools started by launching a competition to see who could come up with the best rainbow design using whatever medium they wanted. The winner was Nate, a reception pupil at Great Crosby, and his younger sister Trixie who put their heads together and came up with a brilliant face paint design (pictured above).
Charlotte Gee (pictured below), the after school manager at Ursuline Catholic Primary School and former pupil of St Edmunds and Sacred Heart College, has completed a 10-mile bike ride from Sacred Heart College to Ursuline wearing a rainbow costume made by her pupils.
The schools then took on the national 2.6 fundraising challenge and set their pupils and teachers the task of coming up with a way of fundraising involving the number 2.6.
Six speedy children – siblings Millie (9), Harry (7) and Poppy Strange (4), along with siblings Izzy (9), Jess (8) and Max Faraday (5) - from St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’ ran 26 miles between them, an impressive 7km each, and raised over £1,700.
Some pupils even built ‘2.6 sky scrapers’ using any combinations of the number 2.6 – such as containing 26 blocks or being 26cm high.
Other impressive fundraising feats have included nine-year-old Maisie Edwards, from St. Edmunds and St. Thomas’, who took on an incredible 30-mile cycle ride from Waterloo to Southport on Sunday 10th May. She set herself the goal of raising £500 but she smashed it and raised over £1,000!
Rhiannon Samuel, a pupil at Sacred Heart College, and her sister Casandra, from Ursuline Primary, camped out in a den for 24hrs and raised £250.
Sacred Heart staff and families are also completing the 5k or 5,662 step challenge. On top of all of this, there have been quizzes and bonus balls and even a Virtual Grand National Day.
Ian Walker, head teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic College, said: “We are delighted to be able to help at these moments of great need. We are all acutely conscious of the conditions the brilliant hospice team have to work in and our group of schools wants to play its part in doing everything possible to help.
“Staff, parents and pupils at Ursuline, Gt Crosby, St Edmund and St Thomas’, and Sacred Heart are all used to working together and this really feels like the right way to play our part at the moment. Supported by their families, pupils have been raising funds in lots of different ways and parents and staff have also rallied round by taking part in quizzes and online activities.
“We all wish St. Joseph’s Hospice well in its inspiring mission and we will stay with them on the journey.”
Maxine Armstrong, head of fundraising at St. Joseph’s Hospice, said: “These are truly inspiring young people who have completed some incredible challenges for which they should all be extremely proud. They are a real credit to our local community.
“We’d like to say a great big thank you to every one of them, on behalf of our staff, patients and their families, for supporting the hospice at what is a really challenging time for small but very important local charities.”
There are lots of ways to support the hospice at this challenging time. Please visit our fundraising page for more details. Alternatively, call the fundraising team on 0151 932 6044 or email fundraising@jospice.org.uk.
