We are excited to announce that through the hard work of our S2 pupils at both SMC and MES, three local charities, Craigmillar Literacy Trust, Vintage Vibes and The Thistle Foundation, will each receive a £4,000 grant after three of our teams won the national Youth and Philanthropy Initiative competition.
The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is a programme delivered in Scottish schools, organised by the Wood Foundation, to empower children to make a difference in their local communities whilst also developing a range of different skills. The children work in teams to identify a local charity which they would like to receive a £4,000 grant and then work together to prepare and deliver a presentation to persuade a panel of judges to choose their cause for the grand prize.
Despite this year’s competition moving to a digital format due to the Coronavirus pandemic, which has had its technical challenges, the S2’s rose admirably to the task.
After receiving many amazing submissions, six of the best S2 groups from both SMC and MES were selected to receive an internal donation of £250 for their charity from the SMC and MES Aid funds. Further to this, the three best overall groups from SMC and MES were submitted to the Wood Foundation to enter the national YPI competition, with the chance of winning the £4,000 grant for their respective charities.
We were absolutely delighted to learn that two groups from MES, representing Craigmillar Literacy Trust (S2K) and Vintage Vibes (S2L), as well as one group from SMC, representing The Thistle Foundation (S2G), were chosen as three of the winning submissions. Each of their chosen charities will now be awarded a £4,000 community fund grant.
One of the charities to receive a grant, The Thistle Foundation, wrote: “Our charity is all about supporting people living with long-term health conditions, especially those living in isolation and having to face difficult times alone. The Covid-19 situation has exacerbated this for so many people and we want them to know we are still here for them. We are still working hard, making sure people do not feel lonely and forgotten, we are just doing things differently. These funds will go a long way to support the work we do here at Thistle and we are so very grateful to the students who worked so very hard at a very strange time to continue their project.”
Thank you to the S2’s for all of their hard work and dedication and huge congratulations to Aaryan H, Conall B, Taylor G and James G from the Thistle Foundation group, Lauren D, Emily M, Alice T and Ellen D from the Craigmillar Literacy Trust group and Cara N, Nimisha S, Annabel M and Kirsty K from the Vintage Vibes group.
