Students’ Fundraising Efforts Support Children With Special Needs

Students’ Fundraising Efforts Support Children With Special Needs

A group of Derby College students have raised more than £440 to help buy new sensory play equipment for a charity that supports the families of children with special needs.

Tegan’s Butterflies in Paradise was set up last year by a group of local parents who themselves have children with special needs.  It is named after Tegan Treece who had Down Syndrome and died in 2011 aged three and a half and whose mum Mel is vice-chair of the group.

Play and support sessions are held monthly at Derwent Primary School in the city and at Belper and there is a calendar of other activities throughout the year.

The Derby College students who have been on the Transitions: Get into Early Years programme.  They organised a range of fund raising events including a bake sale, car wash, sponsored silence and raffle.

Three of the students involved are now on the Level 1 Diploma in Caring for Children study programme.  They visited the group recently to present a giant cheque and meet some of the families who will benefit from the new equipment.

They are Priya Kaur (18), Kymira Walters (17) and Charlotte Hobill (17) who are all planning to work with pre-school children after leaving College.

 Charlotte said: “We were keen to raise money for children who need additional support and it has been great to meet some of them here today.”

Kymira added: “We were over the moon with the amount of money raised and hope that the children enjoy the equipment that this money will be used to buy for them.”

Tegan’s Butterflies in Paradise chair Rachel Wild said: “We are very grateful to the students for raising this money for us.

“Sensory toys and equipment are very expensive so this donation will really help us in our goal to buy a sensory table for the group sessions.

“The sessions are an important part of our goal is to support families who have children with special needs, tackle the isolation that many of them face and provide a friendly environment where families can meet and chat, make friends and support each other.”

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