27 May 2021
Woldingham Houses have been busy this week in support of their chosen charities. On Monday 24 May, four brave ‘volunteers’ took to the stage to have their legs (partially) waxed. Mr Ross, Mr Rattle, Mr Abbott and Mr Allberry grinned and bore it as their stoicism raised several hundred pounds for Digby’s charity, Orbis, which works to fight avoidable blindness.
Less painfully, this week Barat House has a “name the bear” activity underway. All the £1-a-name donations will go to Mind, a charity dedicated to helping people with mental illness, and the extremely large bear will go to its new owner’s home.
It’s been a difficult year for House fundraising, with lockdowns, year group bubbles, and other restrictions limiting activities, such as the always successful bake sales regularly seen at school in past years. But creative thinking caps have been put on and activities such as Stuart House’s dining hall jukebox, lunchtime dodgeball and a triathlon by Upper Sixth Former Lara have help swell the coffers, in Stuart’s case for Surrey-based charity, Disability Challengers, which is working to provide fun and safe places where all disabled children and young people can spend time with their friends.
Money raised by Duchesne House, including from a photo competition in the autumn term, will help The Laini Saba School, Kenya, a Sacred Heart supported school in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum. Each House also had a mufti day, where donations are paid not to wear school uniform.
The latest tally showed that more than £2,000 had been raised for this year’s House charities, and recent activities and a few more planned for the second half of term will see that total increase to support charitable work both close to home and around the world.