Nursery team brave the cold

The team from Cedars Day Nursery have helped raise £12,000 so far for the Children Today charity.

Emerging from sleeping bags on flattened cardboard boxes following one of the coldest nights of the year, the five member team from the day nursery in Mentmore Road said the challenge was more difficult than expected and highlighted the plight of the homeless at this time of the year. Cedars manager Michelle Nokes said everybody was determined to complete the challenge in aid of such a worthy cause.

She said: “We are surrounded by happy, healthy and confident children every day and were all really shocked to learn that young people who need specialised equipment to improve the quality of their lives are dependent on this charity. The equipment they need, like ventilation machines for cystic fibrosis sufferers, is not always provided by the NHS.”

The Cedars team were Michelle, Anna Wilkins, Victoria Stone, Tatjana Bacholdina and Sally Jackson.

Armed with sleeping bags, Children Today’s corporate fundraising coordinator, Thomas Williams, and colleague Jessica Chiverton-Stanway, joined more than 100 fundraisers from Childbase Partnership day nurseries throughout the South of England, for the ‘sleep out’ and praised them for adopting the charity for a year-long fund-raising drive.

Tom said: “We have been astounded by the generosity of Childbase and wanted to mark our partnership by taking part in this special event. As our charity relies totally on voluntary donations, support like this is vital to our work in helping improve the quality of life for many children and young people with disabilities. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the whole Childbase team for their amazing efforts.”

Mike Thompson, CEO and founder of Childbase Partnership, Employee Owned Business of the Year and a UK National Champion in the European Business Awards, rallied the troops at the start and end of the challenge.

Donations can be made through the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Region-Three-Childbase-Partnership