Member Article

New adventures on horizon for young people thanks to Rotary bus donation

Children North East, the region’s largest independent children’s charity, has just taken delivery of a new minibus thanks to the brilliant fundraising efforts of Tyneside Rotarians.

Bill Midgley, Vice President of Tyneside Rotary and appeal coordinator, presented the bus to Leigh Elliott, the charity’s interim chief executive at Tynemouth. Leigh said: “It’s really fitting that the official handover should take place at the coast as Tynemouth was the destination for the charity’s first trips to the beach for children in Victorian times.

“Children North East, which began life nearly 130 years ago as the Poor Children’s Holiday Association, was founded to provide children in need with trips down the river to Tynemouth to get some fresh air, away from the smog of industrial Newcastle.

“Today our services are many and varied – from parent-infant relationship psychotherapy, to mental health counselling for teens and helping young victims of crime – but we also continue to take children and young people out to the coast and countryside to enhance their physical and mental wellbeing.

“We are so grateful to Tyneside Rotary for this fantastic resource that will be a real asset to our charity for years to come.”

Tyneside Rotarians have been fund-raising for the mini bus for just over a year and have held a succession of successful events including an ‘Under the Sea’ themed charity ball; a sponsored walk and restaurant ‘takeovers’. There were also substantial donations from a number of other funders including Netherton Park Trust and the Catherine Cookson and Carr-Ellison Charitable Trusts, bringing the total raised to £20,000.

President of Tyneside Rotary, Sue Wood, said they were delighted to have been able to provide the bus. She said: “We were keen to support Children North East after some of our members visited two of the charity’s projects in Newcastle.

“We were impressed with the support that the charity was giving to families and young people in the region and felt that fundraising for a minibus would allow the charity to make an even greater impact. We are delighted to present the minibus to Children North East and are sure that it will be used to great effect.”

Children North East’s senior fundraiser, Carol Taylor, who worked closely with Tyneside Rotary to secure the bus from car dealership, Lookers, who provided complimentary branding - said it would be used to help children and young people get a break from the urban environment in which they live and get out into the countryside.

She said: “In 1891 our founders created opportunities for children and young people to get away from the inner city and experience the fresh clean air of the north east coast. How wonderful we now have our very own minibus and the freedom to venture further afield once again.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by pauline holt .