A Burnham-On-Sea teenager has raised over £400 for charity by selling hand-made gift boxes full of baby items and holding a series of fundraisers over the summer.
Maisie Creswick, a GCSE student, has raised the funds for The Lullaby Trust who try to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“I am passionate about babies and childcare and hope to go into a career of midwifery after university,” she told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
She has held a series of fundraising events and initiatives over the summer to raise funds and awareness for the charity.
Her beautifully decorated gift boxes were filled with high quality baby essentials for youngsters aged from 0-6 months.
She has also hosted a 70s disco night, took part in a sponsored walk from Axbridge to Winscombe, and held a bake sale.
Maisie explains: “To fill my time during the summer following my GCSE exams, I organised five fundraising events in the hope of helping the Lullaby Trust with their fantastic work.”
“I chose the trust after doing some research into their work, and other similar charities’ work, because I am passionate about going into a career of midwifery and leading projects in the future relating to pregnancy and parenting.”
“The first event was to make baby boxes that could be sold as gifts to new mums or bought and donated to mums-in-need. I priced them at £30 to give a healthy profit margin since all the profit was to be donated to the Lullaby Trust.”
“The boxes contained a mixture of newborn clothing and a pack of soothers/dummies, muslins and baby wash. I hand-painted and decorated the boxes which I received free from Clarks shoes.”
“I made 12 in total and still have some left to sell! Burnham-On-Sea.com posted an article focusing on the baby boxes which really helped me to gain publicity.”
“I also held a 70s disco night. I had been looking forward to this event the most and it was the largest event in terms of cost and preparation. A vast amount of people donated to my fundraising PayPal account and so the cost of the hall hire and speaker hire was more than covered. The night went smoothly including a 70s quiz I made and a fun karaoke was also enjoyed by those who attended.”
“The penultimate event was the bake sale. The day before I baked a hefty batch of lemon biscuits and cherry cupcakes. On the Friday morning I made homemade pink lemonade and set up the stall. It was a slow start with my first sale being into the second hour of selling.”
“However, it wasn’t long before many people saw me on the corner of the main road outside my house and I was greeted with overwhelming praise and generosity. I completely sold out!”
“Later that day, I was emailed by a local badge company who were so inspired by my efforts that they wanted to send me a batch of badges with the Lullaby Trust logo to help me raise some more money.”
“Lastly, my best friend Tia and I walked the Strawberry Line from Axbridge to Winscombe and we both managed to collect a good amount of sponsor money from our friends and family to add to the fundraising total.”
“Some other people who had agreed to walk with us pulled out at the last minute, but that didn’t deter us and we had really good fun.”
