Foodbank funding follows Aith school initiative

With the £3000 cheque from the Youth Philanthropy Initiaive for Shetland Foodbank – (left to right) Aiden Mercer, Charlie Anderson, Bertie Georgeson, Gus Young, Zoe Thomson, and Carole Smith” (Missing from picture, pupil Willum Abernethy). Photo: SIC

Shetland Foodbank has been awarded £3,000 to help improve disabled access.

The money has been handed over following Aith Junior High School’s annual Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) final.

YPI is a national initiative in Scottish schools that aims to raise awareness of social issues by encouraging students to research and then present to their peers.

YPI is an independent initiative, first introduced by The Wood Foundation in 2008.

It has engaged more than 230,000 young people who have taken responsibility for £5 million of charitable giving.

Aith’s S3 pupils researched local charities and competed in groups to try to gain £3,000 for their chosen charity.

Presentations were made last week to an audience of S2 and S3 pupils.

Five local charities were represented – CLAN Shetland, Mind Your Head Shetland, RNLI Aith, Shetland Foodbank and Shetland Pride.

The independent judging panel of Carole Smith (Police Scotland), Zoe Thomson (Shetland Islands Council), Gus Young (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service) and Alex Reid (YPI Scotland) chose to award the funds to the group representing the foodbank.

Deputy head teacher of Aith Junior High School, James Garrick, said: “This is our seventh year taking part in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative, which fosters active citizenship in our community, and develops our pupils’ research and teamwork skills.

“This year’s presentations were both captivating and humorous, and accurately described the needs being addressed by local charities.

“We’re grateful to the YPI for their funding and to all the charities involved who have supported the research by our pupils.

“Special thanks also to our teacher Mrs Mercer who has supported our pupils throughout their YPI projects this year.”