75 Leap for Africa

Pic courtesy of AltaVista

Not many people would be up for climbing a 13-metre pole (that wobbles in the wind!), scrambling onto a tiny platform (only just big enough for my bottom) and then leaping a good metre (or more) through the air onto a trapeze. It sounds terrifying. And it is! But I did it because a close friend asked me to. And I did it for charity.

But I wasn't the only one... 75 parents and children between the ages of eight to 60 came down to Longridge in force on Monday, 29th February – Leap Day – to do the Leap of Faith. We were Leaping for Africa... to raise funds for two charities, the Gende Tesfa Community in Ethiopia supported by Partners for Change in Ethiopia, and the New Brainstorm School in Kampala supported by the charity EmpoweraChild.

Holy Trinity School in Cookham has been raising money for the Gende Tesfa School – a community affected by leprosy in family members. Cookham Rise Primary School had also formed a similar partnership with the New Brainstorm School, a school for street and poor children in desperate need of land and buildings to carry out its work.

With two such similar projects, the schools got together with the Cookham Community Social Action Group to carry out fundraising events under the banner of ‘Cookham Leaps for Africa’. One of the results was this special Leap Day event.

Sarah Parfitt, my indefatigable colleague and friend, representing Holy Trinity School, and Lisa Peters and Richard Rhodes from Cookham Rise Primary School, as well as Gerry, Marc, Guy and the Longridge team, worked so hard to run this event at the Longridge Activity Centre in Marlow, and all voted the day a resounding success with over £1,000 raised for the charities. Both Sarah and Lisa were overwhelmed by the support of both past and present pupils and their parents and the word they used was that whole event was ‘emotional’.

The leaping was not just confined to the pole. In the schools, the pupils did star jumps in their playtime and the Cookhams Benefice priests, Father Nick, Reverend David, and Reverend Jo leapt off a bench in the churchyard to show their support. All this was part of the wider mission of the Benefice of the Cookhams to foster its links with the local schools and community and to make a difference in the lives of children. The Social Action Group, founded by the local churches, is one way of bringing local community resources together to further this aim.

If there's one thing I can say about our community, it's that we know how to pull together for a good cause. It truly was a fantastic day – well done to all those involved!

It is hoped that Leaping for Africa will now inspire other schools and churches to get involved and do their own ‘leaping’ for the children of Africa.

See pictures of this event on www.facebook.com/leap4africa and

www.twitter.com/leap4africa.

For information on New Brainstorm School go to www.cookhamriseprimary.org.

For Gende Tesfa go to www.pfcethiopia.org.