Whitworth High staff and students support homeless charity

Tyler Larkin, 12, Teagan Jeffrey, 13, with head of history Jo Wornell, presenting fundraising officer from Petrus, Colin Manford with £260 from the school Christmas concert

Caring staff and students from Whitworth Community High School donated hampers full of food and toiletries and money to homeless charity Petrus.

Fundraising Officer at Petrus, Colin Manford said: “Seeing all these donations melts my heart.”

In November, he attended a careers fair at the school when he met head of history, Jo Wornell.

She said: “I got chatting to the charity’s representative Colin and we discussed what the school could do to help this local charity and came up with the idea of students, and staff, bringing in food and toiletries.

“We have been collecting since the beginning of December and had collection boxes in school for donations.”

Colin was also presented with a cheque for £260, the proceeds of a collection taken at the school’s Christmas Concert.

Colin said: “These donations are going to make a huge difference. At The Hub in Rochdale, we run a breakfast club from Mondays to Saturdays and, on average, we have at least 20 to 30 men and women attending.

“We have put donation stations in four local schools and the support from each has been amazing.

“Young people don’t always get the best press, but they have really understood this and wanted to help.

“A lot of these donations will be used by The Hub because we also serve lunches and hot food and we have men’s and women’s groups.

“We run 21 projects around the area in Rochdale, Middleton, Oldham and Burnley providing everything from emergency accommodation, maintained accommodation and The Hub can also refer people.”

Colin said the charity was finalising plans for a major fundraiser for March.