[A]pprentices from Sellafield Ltd have raised almost £4,000 for the Overend children’s residential home in Whitehaven.
The group of trainees carried out fundraising as a teambuilding exercise, before embarking on the Tall Ships Apprenticeship Cup Challenge in the summer.
They decided they wanted to help young people in the area who are less fortunate than them, to have similar adventures and experiences of their own.
They chose Overend residential home, which provides foster care support to young people in Copeland.
The apprentices planned various fundraising activities at the Sellafield site and in the local area.
Jamie Reed, Head of Development and Community Relations at Sellafield Ltd accompanied the apprentices to Overend to hand over the funds raised, he said; “I’m really proud to see our apprentices offering compassion and friendship to other young people in their community.
“The staff at Overend do a fantastic job providing care and support to young people, giving them a healthy start to a fulfilling life, something that every child deserves.
“Hopefully the money raised by our apprentices will help the residents to plan some worthwhile and fun experiences that will ultimately support their wellbeing.”
Tim Savage, a residential support worker at Overend said: “I’d like to thank thr apprentices at Sellafield Ltd for doing this for Overend, it will make a huge difference to the lives of our residents. We hope to use it to take them on holiday to give them experiences and memories they can enjoy for years to come.”
The Apprentice Ship cup is an annual event that provides a unique opportunity for a group of apprentices from various companies to live on board a traditional tall ship for a week.
The fundraising challenge helped them to bond as a group before they embarked on the challenge to navigate a ship from Belfast to Liverpool in June.
Richard Cardy, an apprentice from Whitehaven said; “We are aware that not all young people have the same opportunities as us to develop skills and grow, which is why we all agreed to raise funds for those who are helped by Overend residential home.
“Our first plan was to create a Just Giving page so we could promote what we were doing to raise money.
“We then had a three day cake and pie sale targeting eight buildings at Sellafield followed by two days washing cars.”
“Our final, and most strenuous, event was a sponsored Spinathon. We beat our initial target of 400 miles on spinning bikes, kindly loaned to us by Copeland pool and fitness centre.”
