A six-year-old girl has raised over £2,000 to help feed families and homeless people in need during the Christmas period.
Ella-Rose, six, from Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, started a GoFundMe fundraiser in October and set out to raise £150 to buy presents and food for children, families and the homeless. She walked 57.43 miles in 30 days and she ended up smashing her target, raising a total of £2025.
Lauren Bamford, Ella-Rose's Mum, spoke to Tyla about her daughter's incredible achievements. "In October, there was a lot in the media about children going hungry during the school holidays, because of food vouchers and things like that. Ella-Rose asked me about it and I explained it to her the best way I could."
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Ella-Rose decided she wanted to do something to help all the children and their families in need over Christmas. She asked her Mum whether the children struggling during the October half-term would face a similar situation over the festive period. Lauren told her daughter: "It could happen again over Christmas because there are a lot of children out there who are not quite as fortunate. Not all children will get presents from Santa."
To which she replied: "Well, we're going to change that. We're going to do some walking to raise some money."
Over the next 30 days, Ella-Rose set out to raise money to meet her intended £150 goal. The miles she walked did not include her journey to school and she walked between 1.5 and two miles every day around the village regardless of the weather. "We'd maybe do a three mile walk as well just to boost it up a bit," Lauren said. "She was determined she was going to make a difference."
Ella-Rose was often joined by her dad, mum and her little brother. If the weather was bad, Ella-Rose would be joined by one parent and the other would stay home with her baby brother.
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"She was absolutely thrilled!" says mum Lauren, describing the moment Ella-Rose discovered she surpassed her target.
Some of the money has been used to make food hampers for a local charity called HATS housing that re-houses the homeless. The hampers include a Christmas dinner and five more food hampers have been delivered this week.
Ella-Rose and her Mum asked The Blue Door, a refuge in Scunthorpe which serves as a refuge for women and children that have been subjected to domestic violence or abuse, for a Christmas gift wish list for the children there. "They flee to get to safety and they literally arrive there and they have nothing. We bought them all their wish list with the money."
Seven large food hampers were also donated to the refuge this week.
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Lauren also contacted a teacher at Ella-Rose's school and organised for some of the food hampers to be donated to families at the school anonymously. "We don't know who they are, we don't need to know because the school took them and delivered them this week for us," explains Lauren.
"They were absolutely eternally grateful for them, they were over the moon, which is lovely."
Lauren posted a notice on the Kirton in Lindsey community Facebook noticeboard to encourage the locals to donate and to wave and cheer if they saw Ella-Rose during one of her walks.
"She was gobsmacked. She couldn't believe how much money she raised. I think she was very proud of herself, as she should be!"
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Well done, Ella-Rose!
Featured Image Credit: Lauren BamfordTopics: Christmas, Life News, News, Life