Whitworth student leads way to raising £1,620

Caring Charlotte Evans, along with school friends, organised a bumper charity day which raised an amazing £1,620 money for two good causes.

The Whitworth Community High School charity champion, who was also a finalist in the Rossendale Business Awards Enterprising Young Person category, is spearheading fundraising at her school after running a successful Macmillan Coffee Morning.

At the charity day, she raised money to set up a fund to support students who were entering sporting competitions which have entry fees and £620 is now in the pot with a further £1k going to support to support Depher CIC UK, a plumber who goes round fixing boilers for free all over the North West.

At break, a huge queue formed in the hall to buy donated home-made cakes, biscuits, crisps and snacks, while in the gym, two fixed bikes were clocking up the miles.

Charlotte, 14, from Year 10, said: “I came in early this morning before the start of school and Luke Ratcliffe and Lucy Lord were there to help me too.”

Cover Supervisor Mandy Pickering also helped the trio to organise and run the fundraiser.

Charlotte said: “Everything we had on the stall had been brought in by different people and the crisps were left over from when school opened in the evenings for students to watch the England World Cup matches.

“It has been mental and we will be selling the rest during the two school lunches. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and donated, spending their own time to bake cakes and put things together for us.

“Everyone has been amazing and it is all very much appreciated. When I did the Macmillan event, the response was amazing so when I said I was doing a similar thing I didn’t know if I would get the same support but I am really, really happy with how busy we have been.”

She also arranged three raffles: for students, adults and teachers and got donations from local businesses.

In the gym, Year 10s Max Smith and Charlie Palliser were sponsored to pedal static bikes for miles in between attending lessons, and while they studied, friends kept the pedals going from 7am to 5pm.

Max said: “We turned up at school at 7am and got straight on the bikes and by 11.45 the bikes had already done more than 230km.”

They were hoping to have completed 600km by 5pm.

Max and Charlie, along with fellow student Josh Craggs, also Year 10, have won through to the local final of the British Schools Karting Championships at Trafford Park on January 31.

They hope to then win a place in the regionals and national finals, but to enter costs money so they will benefit from the fund being set up from the proceeds of charity day.