North East Hearts with Goals
In February, to coincide with St Valentine’s Day, we organised a fund-raising event to support Penelope’s Fund and the work that they do to fundraise for North East Hearts with Goals.
Penelope, one of our young pupils, has a serious heart condition (CPVT) which means that she needs constant access to a defibrillator. As a school, we have our own defibrillator but Penelope also carries around a smaller portable defibrillator wherever she goes.
One of our Teaching Assistants, Michelle Dixon, who works really closely with Penelope, came up with the idea of a sponsored walk to raise money for this great cause.
During the week of 6th – 10th February, children throughout school could donate money to the charity through small sales of heart badges and wrist bands and could also take part in the sponsored event. The course involved children walking 1 mile (equivalent to 20 laps of the KS2 yard) for the older children or walking 1/2/ a mile (equivalent to 10 laps of the KS2 yard) and this was organised over the course of the week so that the children completed a few laps in small bursts.
I was thrilled when we counted up the sponsorship money and we had raised £2,600! I am so proud of our children and families, they are so kind and generous to the needs of others and because Penelope is part of our school family they really demonstrated what an amazing strong school family we have here at St Bede’s!
Donna (Penelope’s Mum) has informed us that the money will be used to purchase two or three portable defibrillators to give to families whose children need one. The defibrillator will have our school badge displayed on it and it is a wonderful reminder that the children of St Bede’s have yet again put their ‘faith in action’.