Salisbury school hands thousands to Stars Appeal

It's the 'leftovers' from a fundraising campaign during the first lockdown

Author: Faye TryhornPublished 21st Dec 2020

St Joseph's School in Laverstock has been supporting key workers on the frontline since the first coronavirus lockdown back in March.

9 months on, they've still doing their bit to help.

They've given more than £14,000 over to the Salisbury District Hospital charity.

Volunteers worked really hard to make the PPE over a number of weeks

Deputy Headteacher at St Joseph's, Kevin McGuinness, started it all:

"Initially it was just a case of not being very good at sitting doing nothing! So I 'stole' the school's laser cutter, and then it just kind of snowballed from there!

"There was an awful lot of people involved in this, not just me. Huge thanks to Carolyn Thompson-Easter, a parent of one of our pupils, we had different schools cutting all round three counties in the end."

The campaign to make the PPE saw hundreds of deliveries take place to hospitals across the South

The team of volunteers ended up making thousands of visors and pieces of PPE, with a crowdfunder set up to raise the money to cover the materials.

The cash given to the Stars Appeal is the surplus after making all the equipment for those on the frontline.

Kevin McGuinness says it's an incredible result:

"(I'm) blown away to be honest, it's thanks to the people of Salisbury and we wound up kind of going nationally with people donating.

"(It's great) to be able to feed what's left over of that money back into a relevant cause that's carrying on. The circumstances for them haven't changed, but at least they've got access to the equipment that they need directly now."

One of the visors made by the St Joseph's team

The charity's delighted with the support they've received as well:

Mr McGuinness from St Joseph's explains what the cash will do to keep the support going:

"It's going into the general fund as when we spoke to the charity, a significant amount of the work that they're doing has a Covid element attached to it.

"It just seemed a really fantastic place to support the work they're doing. I think that money will go to benefit a huge number of people, who may have even donated themselves."

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