Families of pupils at St. Mary’s College in Crosby have been putting bags of effort into fundraising for the school.

Members of the Parents’ Association have been organising collections of unwanted items such as clothing, bedding, curtains, shoes, belts and handbags to be sold for reuse abroad or recycling at home.

The material goes to the Northallerton-based organisation Bag2School which has helped schools and other groups to raise more than £10 million since 2001.

Bag2School say their collections also help to reduce the amount of textiles going to landfill sites which is estimated to be more than one million tonnes a year.

Money raised by the St. Mary’s Parents’ Association is used to buy extra equipment and organise additional activities for the college, its prep school The Mount and its Bright Sparks nursery facility.

Purchases have ranged from TVs, DVD players and computer software to sports equipment and costumes for nativity plays and drama productions.

St. Mary’s College Principal, Mike Kennedy, commented: “The Parents’ Association do a fantastic job for the college and the Bag2School collection is just one of a long list of innovative fundraising projects they are involved with.”

In the bag – St. Mary’s students get ready to load up the Bag2School van with material collected by the Parents’ Association.

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