King Edward’s School (KES) recently held an ‘illumination day’, with pupils sponsoring the LED candles in a display which formed the initials of Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital outside the Birmingham School. Boys paid a minimum of £5 to sponsor a candle and have already raised more than £5,000 for the hospital.
KES has supported the children’s hospital since the late 1800s when it set up a cot fund to buy new beds. The money raised by the illumination day will fund fibre optic lights to make children’s stay in the hospital a more pleasant experience.
Leader of the fundraising team, Siddharth Singh from year 12, said: “These lights will make a world of difference to the children who lie day after day, for months on end, with no entertainment except for a dull, grey ceiling. When we visited the ward, we could see the positive impacts the lights made, through easing the experience for the children as well as allowing parents to engage with them.”
The sixth-form fundraising team’s work will also provide them with credit towards the school’s creativity, action and service (CAS) programme, an element of the international baccalaureate diploma studied at KES.
Michael Johnson, CAS coordinator, said: “We are very proud of our relationship with Birmingham Children’s Hospital and have supported a number of different initiatives at the hospital over the years. It is something boys at the school are very passionate about and it is wonderful that they can see their efforts rewarded directly through the purchasing of new equipment.”
Other activities that the boys will be organising to raise funds for the hospital include a bow tie day, non-uniform days and several raffles.
