Our 2025 Youth Enterprise Project Team, Val Olayinka, Mia Ogden, Malika Sobirova, Laura Gallitz and Nina Wang, have been awarded the Best Marketing Strategy Trophy for their fundraising campaign for St Catherine’s Hospice that they have been running for the last 10 weeks.
This wasn’t the only trophy they brought back. Teachers had been asked to nominate a team member who lives the values of St Catherine’s in who they are and how they act. Mia’s smile, her respect, and her optimism and energy made her a standout winner to pick up this very special prize.
The awards evening was a glorious celebration of the innovation, resilience and hard work of students from eight schools in the local area who were given the challenge of turning £50 into at least £1,500 in just 10 weeks. Together, the teams raised £28, 215.19 of which, drum roll please, £5,063.53 came from Burgess Hill Girls.
Our team brought the whole school community together with acts of kindness for the Just Giving page, scrunchy making that needed to be crowd sourced because demand was so high, the Colour Run that had everyone out exercising and having fun, the non-uniform day where we turned the school orange to raise awareness of the hospice logo, and the numerous fundraising opportunities that piggy backed the events already in the busy school calendar. Not to mention the online clothing sales, doughnut and popcorn events and the £50 note serial number challenge.
Thanks to the generosity of students, parents and staff and the tenacity and creativity of the team, we were able to exceed our £3,000 target, raise awareness of the work of St Catherine’s and build lasting relationships with the hospice which relies so much on donations and fundraising. This group of enterprising young women have learnt some valuable skills that will help them with their A level Business course and more importantly, have used their knowledge and skills to improve the lives of those who need the hospice when life comes full circle.
