Students and staff at St Bonaventure’s raised nearly £10,000 during the autumn term for three charities. At an end of year assembly on 19 December, headteacher Paul Halliwell presented cheques to the Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society, the ‘For Jimmy’ charity and ‘Contact the Elderly’.
Bernadette Fisher (above with Paul Halliwell), the director of BCCS, the social care charity that provides counselling for children and families of all faiths and none, collected a cheque for £8,000. She said: “I am overwhelmed by the amount- it is one of the largest I have ever collected.”
Margaret and Barry Mizen (left), parents of murdered teenager Jimmy Mizen, also attended the Christmas liturgy and collected a cheque for £1,826.57 for their ‘For Jimmy’ charity. The money was collected from the Christmas Jumper mufti day on December 14. They were overwhelmed by the generosity of staff and students and said: “The money will really help with Jimmy’s legacy of spreading the message of forgiveness, peace and hope across the country.”
Modern Foreign Languages teacher Angela Hillan accepted a cheque for £131 on behalf of ‘Contact the Elderly’ after staff donated money rather than sending each other Christmas cards this year.
Mr Halliwell said: ”I am so proud of the amount raised this term – it is a phenomenal amount to raise in just 12 weeks. To be able to present those cheques to three worthwhile charities was a wonderful start to the Christmas holidays.”