Each year the boys and staff in each of our Prep School houses throw themselves whole-heartedly into fundraising for their chosen charities – and the last academic year was no exception!
Harpur
Dawn and Amy from Willen Hospice, were our first guests of the year to be presented with their fundraising cheque during Assembly in September. They were not only delighted with their cheque from Harpur for £2,630, but also highly impressed by the boys’ charity event, which was a ‘Sporting Charity Challenge’. With soccer penalty shootouts, bowling at stumps, basketball free throws and skittles, it proved fun for all.
Bunyan
Bunyan chose to fundraise for Mind Map – a Bedford-based charity that supports schools to focus on the prevention/early intervention of children and young people’s mental health. Liz Fordam from Mind Map was delighted to accept their cheque for £2,636 during assembly in October. The boys’ brilliant efforts in their charity event: ‘Climb Ben Nevis’, helped them achieve this fantastic amount. The challenge involved walking around the school grounds, up and down the stairs in the Inky and Wells building stairs and scaling the climbing wall until they reached the impressive height of the mountain.
Howard
Howard House started the hotly-contested Penny Wars to raise funds for their chosen charity: Tibbs Dementia Foundation, who provide critical help and support to people with dementia and their carers living in Bedfordshire. The clever competition encouraged boys, in their tutor groups, to track down loose coppers to raise funds. However, in a fiendish twist, boys could scupper other tutor groups’ scores by sneakily adding 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p coins to their collecting jars when they were not looking, resulting in negative points! Margaret Duggan from the charity was on hand to accept their cheque for £3,208 in October.
Whitbread
Whitbread raised funds by dancing their socks off in an energetic and, mostly, coordinated display of Zumba. Decked out proudly in their house colours, the boys and staff – in fetching green tutus and deely boppers – proudly strutted their funky stuff to the dance tunes blasting out of the speakers. The energetic activity helped to raise £3,028 for the boys’ chosen charity: The Juvenile Diabetes Research, which was presented to Danni Manton from the charity in this week’s assembly.
But that is not the end of the houses’ fantastic fundraising activities. Thanks to the boys’ hard work and the generosity of our community, we have also been able to provide donations to the following charities, chosen by the Headmaster.
- Mad about Harry – £1000
- DEC African Cyclone – £100
- Books2Africa – £43
- Harry Shaw’s Giant Pledge – £500
- Riverbank (Bedford Hospital Charity & Friends) – £1,192
