Supporters fundraising stories

Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy’s fun runs

Chacombe Primary School organised a summer fun run, which involved the local community as well as the school. They had such fun, went on to have a fabulous time participating in the Schools Santa Run in December.

Name: Natalie Coates, Head Teacher at Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy
Events: Summer fun run fundraisier and now the Schools Santa Run
Venue: Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy
Amount raised: £2,209.26

Why did you choose to support Katharine House Hospice with your fundraising?

In school, we always encourage the children to think of others and to be a ‘courageous advocate’ within our community. They now come to us and ask whether they can raise money for different charities, which is always so heart-warming to see.

For this fundraiser, Katharine House was an obvious choice as it holds a special place in so many people’s hearts at Chacombe School. We have had two members of staff who couldn’t have got through some very difficult times, if it wasn’t for the staff at Katharine House. We have no words to say how grateful we all are. As we started organising this event, we realised how many people in our local community have been supported by Katharine House or know of somebody who has stayed there.

Tell us a bit about your event or activity

We have a wonderful parent – Coach Claire – who runs our running club each week. She encourages the children to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and exercise and she helps them to grow to love running: whether it be sprinting, long distance, cross country or park runs. She just wants children to enjoy sport. She has previously organised smaller, school-based fun runs where the children donated Easter eggs or warm clothes for those in need in Banbury. The charities were always suggested by the children.

This time she wanted to go bigger and so we opened up our summer fun run to other schools locally and to the whole community. Claire got in touch with Katharine House, who were so supportive and generous, offering flags, high-vis jackets, posters and also a representative to come and start the race.

We had a beautifully sunny day for our race and so many children and family members joined in – the route was marked out around the village and we also had lots of marshals who had offered to help out on the day. Everyone loved it and had great fun!

The local pub – The George and Dragon – in Chacombe was also on board. They provided hotdogs and ice lollies for all the runners afterwards in their pub garden and everyone went there to celebrate. It turned into a wonderful social event for the village and community. A collection bucket was passed round the pub too and we received lots more donations to add to our JustGiving page.