There was much excitement among our Year 5 pupils when they received news that an envelope from Australia had arrived at school, marked for their attention. The envelope contained a letter from Dermot O’Gorman, Chief Executive of WWF-Australia, thanking S. Anselm’s School for their generous donation of $404.66 towards the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia. In addition to the letter, the pupils also received a glossy ‘Thank you’ certificate, in recognition of their commitment and support.
Our Year 5 pupils had not been expecting the letter, as their donations resulted from on an initiative planned and organised by the children in January 2020, when they were in Year 4. During that time, as part of their project research on eco-systems around the world, the children learned about the devastating effect of the bush fires in Australia in late 2019/early 2020 and felt that they would really like to do something to help with disaster relief. As such, they formed the idea of making friendship bracelets, which they successfully sold for £1 each, to raise funds for the WWF ‘Towards Two Billion Trees’ charity. The charity plans to plant two million trees in the fire damaged areas by 2030, thereby restoring the koala’s habitat (and many other animals’ habitats). Over 160 bracelets were sold, and in conjunction with their cake sale, pupils raised a further £80, totaling £240, for the charity.
This was, indeed, an excellent example of fundraising, organised and carried out with great success by the pupils themselves. The children even sent a bracelet to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson – they received a response within three days, with super, positive comments about their sterling efforts in raising funds for such an important issue.
