Turkey and Syria earthquake: kind Newtownabbey pupils donate school trip funds

The Primary 7 pupils from King’s Park Primary School have raised over £500 to support the relief work being carried out in the countries after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake at the start of the month.

The children held a Valentine’s ‘Love Shop’ with the aim of raising money to fund a school trip to a local leisure centre.

However, days after the shop opened, news broke of the devasting earthquake in southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria.

Over 45,000 people are understood to have died, with this figure expected to rise. Milliions of people are now homeless following the quake.

Pupils decided that they would like to help in any way they could and the children suggested sending all profits from the ‘Love Shop’ to the affected areas.

This was particularly poignant as Syrian pupils attend King’s Park Primary and the impact of the quake was felt by them in a very personal way.

Vice Principal Gemma McCarey commented: ‘King’s Park PS is a very inclusive and caring school and we place great importance on encouraging our children to be kind and help others. This decision by the P7s reflects the caring young citizens they are and their desire to make a positive impact in the world.”

Over the course of four days, P7 pupils enjoyed developing their entrepreneurial skills and selling lots of items to the rest of the pupils in school.

Student Olivia H said: “We would like to thank all our customers who came to the Love Shop. We had great fun planning it, buying stock, advertising it by making posters and then selling everything.

"We are going to maybe have an Easter Shop and hopefully we can raise more money for good causes to help others.”

Pupil Joshua H added: “It feels good to know we did something to help other people. And it’s good as it was a Valentine’s shop as it was all about showing love and being kind to others.”