Courtyard challenge for the corona virus appeal fund

Thursday 23 April 2020

A group of young neighbours have completed a fundraising mission - cycling round their shared courtyard more than 1,000 times, in exchange for donations to the States Covid-19 Response Appeal Fund.

The idea came from 11-year-old James Gallie who is spending the lockdown with his mum, dad and two younger brothers at their home in St Peter Port.

He and brother William (9) spend a lot of their time kicking a football around with dad Aaron, or playing with younger brother Freddie (2).

Their neighbours, Chloe and Lola are also spending the lockdown at their St Peter Port homes. The properties share a courtyard which gives the older children and their younger siblings room to play, even while socially distancing from one another.

Pictured: The courtyard the Gallie brothers share with their neighbours. They worked out that 1400 laps would equal 14km. 

Earlier this week James came up with an idea to raise some money to support the corona virus appeal, which involved the four older children.

The two boys and the two girls each took to their bikes or scooters to do laps of the courtyard - aiming to cover 14km without leaving home.

They worked out if they did 1,400 laps that would equal 14km. They wanted to raise £250 between them and with dad Aaron's help they took to social media to try and do that. 

You can sponsor them via a Justgiving link HERE. 

Pictured: James and William Gallie and their neighbours Chloe and Lola worked together to raise hundreds of pounds for charity.

11-year-old James, a pupil at Vauvert Primary, said: "My neighbours (Chloe and Lola), my brother (William) and myself would like to support the Doctors and Nurses who are doing an amazing job helping everyone who has been affected during this pandemic."

In total, the four children did more than 2,000 laps and have raised more than £400 between them.

James did 1000 laps, Lola did 600, Chloe completed 300 and William did 250 laps.

The boys' dad Aaron helped the children keep track of their laps by marking each one on a piece of paper while James used his dad's Strava account to measure the times and distances they had each completed. 

Pictured: The children have already raised more than £400 for the States corona virus appeal fund. 

The boys' mum Vicky said they are very pleased with how the children worked together to come up with their challenge and how they completed it.

"We're so proud of all four of the children. They came up with the idea entirely by themselves and didn't moan once!

"They spend most of their days riding round the courtyard so thought 'why not raise money from it?'

"Even though the challenge is finished, hopefully the donations will keep coming in for such a fantastic cause."

You can sponsor the children via their Justgiving link HERE. 

Pictured top: James, Freddie, Chloe and Lola, and younger siblings, in their shared courtyard.