A group of young people from Redcar and Cleveland, supported by staff from the 25K Youth and Community Centre, are showing how strong their Christmas Spirit is by making donations to various charities and causes within their local communities.
They call themselves the 25K Fundraisers and every year, starting in January, they organise fundraising events and activities so that they have funds ready to make donations at Christmas time for local young people, families and other great causes.
This year, they managed to raise over £3000 which was no easy task. To raise this sum, the young people, aged between 8 and 13 years, organised coffee mornings, Easter and Christmas fundraisers, Halloween parties both for babies and older children, car washing and bag packing.
The money will go towards the Redcar Food Bank in the form of food donations and a cheque, The Senses Wellbeing Centre, The S.A.R.A Animal Rescue charity both as a cheque and food for animals. The young people have also used part of the money to put together hampers for the local care homes and families who attend the youth centre, as well as offering biscuit hampers to the residents from their local community.
Ethan Rowe, 13 from Redcar, has joined the group back in 2020, he said:
“At first, I joined the group because it seemed like a lot of fun, but being able to help some of the people living here makes me really happy. “
Evangeline Lumley, 11 from Recar, joined the group 3 years ago, and she fully enjoys what they are doing:
“I liked doing all these activities to fundraise the money, especially the Halloween and Christmas parties and I’m happy the money is going to good causes.”
Cabinet member for Children, Cllr Bill Suthers, said:
“It’s so inspiring to see such young people working hard to raise money to help both other residents and charities in their local communities. From organising community events to doing car washing, they are amazing examples for all of us and I wish them many years of successful fundraising and to continue to enjoy what they are doing.”