Pupils hold festive charity drive for Blackburn’s vulnerable communities
Kind-hearted pupils are helping to support vulnerable people across Blackburn this festive season.
Pupils at school have been collecting food for local homeless people, supporting a local sheltered accommodation scheme and Blackburn Food Bank, as well as raising money to help make a difference to their community.
The children have been working with local charities, including Nightsafe, Spinneyside Sheltered Accommodation, The ARC Project (Asylum and Refugee Community) and Age UK, to bring much needed comfort to communities who may be struggling during the winter season.
Their innovative fundraising efforts have included a bake sale, an auction, a sponsored sleep-over with Nightsafe, raising funds to create hampers, planning to prepare and share a festive meal, various winter sporting games and a non-uniform day to raise donations.
The charitable work forms part of the school’s annual Festive Winter Gift Programme, which takes place across all 28 schools that are part of the multi-academy trust, Star Academies.
Mufti Hamid Patel CBE, Chief Executive of Star Academies, said:
“At Star Academies, we are committed to nurturing our pupils to develop a genuine desire to support those less fortunate than themselves. The festive season is one of the times in our school calendar when we step up our efforts to offer a helping hand to those in need.
“Once again this year, it is extremely heartening to see our pupils, parents and staff embrace our Winter Gift Programme by reaching out into their communities to put smiles on the faces of the most vulnerable.
“Together, we want to ensure that no one in our community is without company, a card or gift at the time of year when our country is celebrating a national holiday.”
Majid Ditta, Principal of TIBHS, said that the programme is an important part of school life as it helps pupils to learn about the spirit of goodwill. He said:
“We are very proud of the innovative ways our pupils have chosen to support people within our local community.
“They have all worked tirelessly to make a real difference to vulnerable people who are sometimes in desperate need.
“As a school, we are committed to playing an active role in our community and helping others and we hope that our annual Winter Gift Programme will touch the lives of many local people this winter.”
Added By: Star Academies | Date Added: 12th Dec 2019 | Posted In: Latest News