P4L Go the Whole 26 Miles (That’s a Marathon) for Charity!
A few years back the local charity for Cancer Support in North Scotland, CLAN, ran a dolphin trail. These dolphins were decorated by artists and then were displayed around the north of Scotland. Ultimately, they were auctioned to raise money for CLAN. Schools could participate by decorating a ‘little’ dolphin. Riverbank participated at that time and were sponsored by the builders of the Donside Village. The Riverbank Dolphin was dispalyed in the Tillydrone Library before being returned to the school where it has been on permanent display ever since.
In 2020 we were contacted by CLAN who were seeking to run a similar trail and we said we would like to be a part of
their new trail which is ‘Light the North’ Lighthouse Trail. We were fortunate to gain sposorship from Subsea 7 which faciltated the school in gaining a Little Lighthouse. CLAN also provided a super education pack which was well-used by several classes during Lockdown Number 1. Due to the Covid pandemic, the launch of the Lighthouse Trail was postponed but it’s due to run from the 9th of August until the 17th October. Our P4L, Miss Littler’s class, has been very busy, all session on the CLAN education pack and the highlight was the decoration of their Little Lighthouse which we managed to do before going into the second lockdown.
The children chose as the theme for the lighthouse, Aberdeen Beach. It was a place that they liked to visit outdoors during lockdown. Their lighthouse features lots of things they associate with the beach for example the big wheel at Codona’s, ice cream, the Marine Operations Centre (the harbour master’s tower) and several other items of note. They designed their lighthouse with the help of Miss Littler and Mrs Coull, one of our PSAs. Every child was involved in adding a drawing to the lighthouse and they took it in turns to paint the drawings. Finally, it was varnished and Mrs Coull delivered the lighthouse to CLAN.
Steph, from CLAN, did a virtual meet with the pupils who were able to glean even more information about all the wonderful work that CLAN do for folks in the north of Scotland. They work with not just cancer sufferers but they help support the families of cancer sufferers too! She was impressed by the questions they asked. I hope she didn’t find them too tricky!
Once the children could get out and about a bit more, as Covid restrictions were eased, they decided that they would like to raise some funds for CLAN themselves. They decided they would like to do a sponsored run and they would do a Marathon. This would be completed by each child through the month of May. The children could run, jog or walk a bit of their Marathon each day and laps were counted and kept on a chart in the classroom. As a special end of Marathon, the children finished their mileage in the beautiful gardens at Seaton Park where there was even a finishing line to cross. Needless to say, there was a mad dash to cross the finishing line first! The children were sponsored by family and friends and they were astounded when the reached £450
pounds but the money kept coming and at the time of writing this article P4L had raised nearly £2000 for CLAN. What an amazing sum of money! So all thanks to all our pupils who took part as well as Miss Littler who orchestrated the Riverbank Marathon and to all the parents, carers, friends and relatives who supported the children in raising funds for such a great local charity.
All the Little Lighthouses are now on display at various sites in the north east and we would be delighted if you went to see P4L’s Little Light which is on display in Aberdeen Art Gallery. We hope to display our Little Light when it is returned to Riverbank at the end of the trail. Again, we would like to thank Subsea 7 for sponsoring us so that Riverbank and P4L, in particular, could participate for a very worthy cause! If you do go to visit the Art Gallery, please, let us know what you think of our lighthouse. I think you’ll be impressed. See if you can work out what all the local features are that are represented on the lighthouse!
UNCRC / RRSA
Article 24 – Every child has the right to the best possible health……..
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