Autumn Term Fundraising Round-up!

Written by Rosie Lake

This term has been my first in the very exciting role of Charities Coordinator, and  I have been absolutely bowled over by the kindness of the Godstowe community.

I started the term in September much saddened, as were we all, by the news of two untimely deaths amongst Godstowe Staff and their families. However, from these distressing events arose the opportunity for the parents and pupils at Godstowe to demonstrate their generosity.

The Star of Hope Mufti Day on the 20th September, in memory of Mr and Mrs Summersgills’s son-in-law, James, raised £580.85 for Bowel Cancer UK.

Lodge also raised £282 for Cancer Research in memory of Steph McQuaid. More money was raised via our staff MacMillan Coffee Morning and the cardmaking efforts of Camilla Spearpoint in the Upper Thirds, and donations from these amounted to a further £345. Finally, we as a staff also contributed to the excellent Bras for Breast Cancer drive.

In October we celebrated Harvest Festival at Godstowe and I was thrilled to see the display of food and other contributions towards the Chiltern Foodbank start to arrive on the stage in the JK Theatre. It then grew..and grew..and finally we were able to send away 742 kilos of food. This will have provided food and other necessities for 106 people for three days. A result that was, of course, wonderful but also very humbling.

November saw our reception area filled with multi-coloured gifts to send to children in Moldova, as part of the Love in a Box scheme run by the Mustard Seed Mission. In addition to the gifts contained in the boxes, there was also a total of £1142 in contributions, which helps to pay for the transportation of the Christmas gifts.

Remembrance Day is also an occasion we mark at school and Mrs Sanderson this year raised a record £509 for the British Legion through the sale of her knitted poppies.

Our final Mufti this term was in aid of a fabulous charity, of which Mrs Alex Moore is a trustee, the very worthwhile Schoolreaders. Children from Lodge and Main School wore starry outfits and also held cake sales, cleaned cars and thought of many more inventive ways to raise the £15 it costs to fund one of these volunteers for a year. This charity provides volunteers to go into primary schools to help children read, as a result of which they leave in year 6 with vastly improved levels of literacy. It’s so simple, yet incredibly effective and our donation was a fantastic  £1,550.33 - and the total is still rising!

Finally, even though it was not strictly part of this term’s fundraising, I would like to use this platform to thank everyone who supported Mrs Cansdale, Miss Third and myself last term in completing the Ration Challenge. As a result of the tremendous support we received from colleagues, girls and parents we were able to raise awareness and send £3,265.60 to the Ration Challenge organisation to provide much-needed assistance for refugees.

In total, including the Ration Challenge at the end of the Summer Term, we have raised an impressive £7,737.28