Bolton School Girls’ Division has once again raised thousands of pounds this year for a wide variety of charities, exceeding last year’s record-breaking total with a final tally of around £22,000!
The charities supported by the girls are appropriately wide-ranging. Locally, they have supported local organisations like Owen McVeigh Foundation and the Blue Skies Hospitals Fund. National causes such as Sarcoma UK, Papyrus, Breast Cancer Now and the Poppy Appeal have benefitted from the fundraising, as well as international work including Save the Children, Ummah Welfare, DEC’s Pakistan Floods Appeal, the Turkey and Syria Earthquake Appeal, and Secure Hope Empowered (SHE), a charity that helps remove barriers to girls’ education in Zimbabwe.
The biggest effort came at Christmas, when a number of traditional festive fundraisers supported Anastasia Days, a charity set up in memory of Girls’ Division pupil Anastasia Costello, who sadly passed away in December 2021 when she was in Year 7. The Costello family visited school in January to collect a cheque for £4,139.04.
In addition to raising money, the School continued to support Urban Outreach with food collections at Harvest and by donating 2,848 selection boxes to the charity’s ‘Christmas Dinner of Jesus’ hampers, gave toys to the Bolton Lions Toy Appeal and Cash for Kids Mission Christmas appeal, and collected Easter Eggs for Homeless Aid. The whole Bolton School Foundation, from Reception to Year 13, also came together to support a campaign to fill bags with stationery, toiletries, toys and uniforms for street children in Malawi. These were given to children at the newly opened Chunzu Primary School, with every pupil receiving a bag.
Throughout the year, girls at Bolton School have helped the local community through volunteering and community action and the number of hours volunteered by Year 12 students is the highest recorded for 10 years.
