Southwark Report Internals final single

IMPACT
REPORT
Operation Elf: charity begins at school
A chocolate raffle at St. Mary’s Catholic Federation, Carshalton, for Pact’s
Operation Elf Appeal brings hope and cheer for prisoners and their families.
“No-one can face life in isolation…we need a community which
helps and supports us.” (Fratelli Tutti, 8)
The children at St. Mary’s Catholic Federation,
Carshalton have been learning Bernadette Farrell’s
hymn ‘Christ is our Light’ and the message contained in
their beautiful singing was reinforced by the generous
donations for Pact’s (Prison Advice and Care Trust)
Operation Elf appeal. Staff donated the chocolate and
pupils were invited to donate £2 in a named envelope.
At the Infant School, early on Thursday morning, Mary
Bear sat patiently waiting for Sing and Praise to begin,
keeping watch over the numbered chocolate donations
and the envelopes emptied of money. Once the
children were assembled, there was much excitement
as teachers passed the box around for pupils to pick
out a winning envelope.
Southwark School raises money for Operation Elf
Meanwhile, at the Junior School the Y6 Chaplaincy
Team had been busy for the past few weeks:
promoting the appeal, sorting out the envelopes and
making sure the chocolate was correctly labelled. One
of the pupils’ posters was so good that Pact used it to
publicise the appeal nationally. Andy Keen-Downs,
Pact’s Chief Executive Officer, was very impressed!
Both staff and pupils were delighted to hear that the
appeal raised the magnificent amount of £1,010!
All the money raised has been converted into £10
gift cards which means that 101 prisoners in HMP
Downview will now be able to give a gift card to their
children at one of the Christmas family days.
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