Last year between April and July, ten local primary schools took part in Mini-Colour Runs, and as a result of their fundraising efforts raised over £36,000 for Hospice at Home West Cumbria.

Mini Colour Runs involve school children running around a track on their school field and having brightly coloured powder paint thrown over them which as you can imagine they loved!

Over 3,000 children took part and we were blessed that nine out of the ten Mini- Colour Runs were in glorious sunshine. On the final date at Bransty Primary School, the heavens opened but fortunately it made for great photographs with the coloured paint being more vibrant than ever. It was great to see everyone having fun and raising money for a great cause.

It was the fifth year of carrying out the Mini-Colour Runs in schools and 2019 was bigger and better than ever.

Michael Craig, headteacher at St James’ Infant and Nursery School said: “We had a fantastic afternoon raising money for such an important local charity and the children loved getting colourful.  Parents helped on the day to throw the powder paint and we definitely think some of them enjoyed it a bit too much!”

They joined up with St James’ Junior school for the fun-filled afternoon following their annual sports day at Whitehaven AFC ground.

Along with Bransty and St James’ schools, last year Victoria Infants and Juniors, Valley Primary School, Dearham Primary, Hensingham Primary, Bookwell Primary, St Bees Village Primary, St Gregory’s Primary and Jericho Primary also took part.

One of the more memorable moments for our Fundraiser Liz, took place at Jericho Primary’s run at Whitehaven Academy School when, after a night of heavy rain, she drove the Hospice van onto the sports field and quickly realised it was stuck in the mud.   After soon realising no amount of revving the engine was helping, the grounds staff at the Academy came to the rescue and retrieved the van.  Thankfully she can laugh about it now.

Gemma Bell, Fundraiser for Hospice at Home West Cumbria, said: “We had a fantastic few months working with the schools last year. We’re so disappointed we can’t go ahead with the planned events this time around but we hope the schools will be happy to get involved again in the future.”  She added “We’d like to encourage children and their families to support Hospice at Home West Cumbria from home. There are some really fun ideas on our website that can easily be carried out at home and family and friends can be encouraged to sponsor them.”

To see what kind of activities you could get up to at home visit  HERE

If you are a teacher or a parent would like to register an interest in holding a Mini-Colour run at your school in 2021, please email info@hhwc.org.uk and leave your contact details and the fundraising team will get back in touch with you.