A north Cumbrian school has continued the charitable work carried out by one of their teaching assistants who died just before Christmas.
Since 2006, Fir Ends Primary School in Smithfield, near Carlisle, has supported the Great North Air Ambulance Service by hosting collections of unwanted clothing.
The clothing is collected and recycled by the charity’s trading company, with the money generated from the sales of the clothing reinvested back into the charity.
The collections at Fir Ends Primary School are organised by the parents, teachers, and friends of the school. Often a cattle trailer will be parked up before the day of the collection, and the school helps to publicise it and distribute the bags.
The school aims to have a collection three times a year, and usually fills the full van with clothing donations, which raises between £200 and £300.
In recent years Angie Smith, one of the school’s teaching assistants, described as a “passionate cheerleader for various charities” took on co-ordination duties.
She died suddenly before Christmas in 2023 and now the baton has been passed onto the wider group, with their most recent collection accumulating 1,244kg of clothing.
Daryl Spencer, headteacher, said: “Angie had a lot of charities that she would fundraise for, but she particularly enjoyed the air ambulance collections – it was an ideal opportunity to catch up for a chat with everyone in the wider community when they were dropping off.
“Apart from bustling about, marshalling cars, helping to empty boots and greeting the van when it arrived, she kept a spreadsheet of collection tallies and an excited email trail usually followed every collection. She took great pride in the success of ‘her’ collections and was the person who decided that we could probably fill three vans a year, and she was right.
“The collections will now act as one of the (many) moments in the year when memories of Angie, and her contributions within the local area, will be close to people’s thoughts.”
The school has raised thousands of pounds over the years and was treated to a flypast by GNAAS’ newest helicopter Pride of Cumbria II in April 2021, before it started operating at the charity’s base in Langwathby, near Penrith.
Mr Spencer added: “In a rural community like ours, the value of the air ambulance is appreciated, particularly by those whose work involves being in remote areas that a normal ambulance would be unable to reach. Many people within our community know or know of someone who has needed it. Because of this, the collections are always well-supported.
“The collections also bring together the whole community at key points in the calendar. The chance meetups with old faces from the school community – and beyond it – also mean that there’s a sense of community amongst everyone who drops off bags. The money raised is useful, but really it’s that thread that links and sustains our school community through contribution to a shared goal that keeps our collection going.
“Arranging collections is easy to do – and it’s something that’s easy for a lot of people to contribute to since most of us have clothes we don’t wear or need any more. One bag from everyone soon adds up.”
