Heroic Youngsters Walk Ten Miles for Smiles!
A group of twelve 9-10 year-olds from Holy Rood Catholic Primary School in Watford walked ten miles to raise money for Spread a Smile on Sunday 28thOctober.
The idea for the challenge was initiated by young Ciarrai, who saw an advert about children in Great Ormond Street Hospital. She thought she would like to send Christmas presents to the kids she had seen on TV. Knowing the mum of her schoolfriend Chloe visited GOSH with Spread a Smile, a plan was formed for a group from their year to raise money for presents to be delivered to the hospital.
The youngsters gathered at 2.30pm on the 28th in Cassiobury Park, Watford to begin their challenge. They started by walking three miles along the Grand Union Canal, then retraced their steps back along the canal for the next three. For the final four miles, they walked around Cassiobury Park.
As it was the day the clocks went back, the last couple of miles were walked in the dark. The kids and their parents got out torches and the excitement of a torch-lit meander gave them the second wind needed to complete the ten miles. They had on Spread a Smile hoodies to keep them warm and made up a Spread a Smile chant to keep up morale!
The ten miles took them an amazing 4 hours 5 minutes in total, and barring a couple of loo stops, the children didn’t pause once. Even five-year-old Freddie joined his older sibling and kept up with the pace! Luckily, they had half term to recover their energies and rest their tired feet. They loved the challenge so much they’ve already started planning their next fundraising effort – watch this space for news of a Silent Disco for Spread a Smile!
Thanks so much to the kids of Year 5 of Holy Rood Catholic Primary School for your heroic efforts to provide presents for children who are unable to be at home for Christmas. They raised over £1200 – absolutely astounding! The presents will be delivered to the children at GOSH on Christmas Day by the Spread a Smile team.