As part of their preparation to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Primary 3 class at St. Bernadette’s Primary school in Motherwell decided to launch a backpack appeal for Mary’s Meals.

Photograph shows Tony Begley of Mary’s Meals meeting St Bernadette’s Primary 3 pupils with staff and Fr Stephen Reilly.

The children took charge of creating posters to display within the school and Church asking for donations of stationery, clothes and toiletries for the bags. They also made a personal appeal throughout the school and at all Masses in St. Bernadette’s Church.  Following a successful PR campaign, the backpacks started rolling in to the school. Their class was turned into a sorting and packing station for the items being donated and for four weeks they worked tirelessly with their class teachers and three members of the parish to pack backpacks that will be sent to children in Third World countries to help them in their educational journey.

Originally the children hoped to receive donations that would enable them to fill around twenty backpacks but they were astonished by the response from within the school and from the Parish and have now handed over almost three hundred completely full backpacks to Tony Begley of Mary’s Meals. In addition they handed over £120 that had been donated and this money will be used to feed children. The average cost of feeding a child is just less than seven pounds so their financial donation will also make a huge difference to the work of the Charity.

Anyone interested in organizing a similar event should visit www.marysmeals.org