Holly House School Comic Relief sleep-out to support P3
The pupils of Holly House School in Chesterfield, Derbyshire slept-out to support people who are homeless and sleeping on the streets of the town.
The boys donned their waterproofs, huddled up in their sleeping bags and braved the night’s elements by making shelters out of cardboard.
P3’s Service Manager Jan Harrison and Outreach Workers Helen Greenan and Kerrie Bagnall where there to greet the boys as they woke up the next morning – after completing their outreach work on the streets of Chesterfield.
P3’s team congratulated the boys on their resolve and commitment, thanking them for their support and for raising awareness of our work.
Jan was visibly moved to be presented with hats, gloves, socks, biscuits, cake, non-perishable food items and toiletries that the pupils had bought out of their own pocket money. Pupils said that they hoped the items would be useful for the people who were homeless in Chesterfield.
Jan pledged to ensure the items are distributed throughout the county, to people sleeping on the streets and to those living within P3 services, such as hostels, where donations like these are always needed.
She stated: “This is fantastic! The young boys are so well cared for and have a great attitude towards learning about the real issues of today, issues that we are faced with in our cities and towns.
“The staff at the school are just great, the atmosphere is one of pride and happiness. Visiting them today, it was an absolute delight to meet a staff team who are clearly getting it right – teaching, supporting and helping the boys, it was just amazing.
“In addition to sleeping out they decided that they would go without food for 18 hours. This ended at noon today, and yes, I did turn up with a tray of cup cakes for them so I needed to put them out of sight!
“This was their Red Nose Day contribution. It was their idea. I can only ask that we all look at street homelessness through their eyes. – It is a huge problem in our cities and now in rural areas across our beautiful county famous for the Peak District.
Jan finished by encouraging others to make a small donation to homeless charities for Red Nose Day, saying: "With support, hopefully one day soon we will eradicate street homelessness – everyone has the right to have shelter.”
If you see someone sleeping on the streets anywhere in Derbyshire please call our Derbyshire Outreach Team on 0808 164 7753.
