Caritas

“Charity, patience and tenderness are very beautiful gifts

If you have them, you want to share them with others.”

Pope Francis

Caritas Ambassadors

St. Damian’s Caritas Ambassadors are a keen and pro-active group of pupils who lead and engage the school community in a very generous amount of fundraising, They devote time and energy to both local and national charities. Our pupils are keen to engage in fundraising activities to help those less fortunate than themselves. Charity work and supporting our local community has never been more important following the pandemic. St. Damian’s pupils have, however, had a long history of engaging in charitable works.

Our Caritas Ambassadors are from all year groups and meet to plan our key school events that involve any charity work in school and in the local community. The charities that are selected often arise from significant events in the life of the school such as cancer diagnosis, food poverty and issues in the wider world. These charities have a profound personal meaning, an emotional attachment and provide real inspiration for pupils to get engage and take part in activities.

Our Annual Events

Each year, St. Damian’s pupils sell poppies in school on behalf of the Royal British Legion to support those who have given their lives for their country or been injured in action. We ask for food donations for the Food Bank and at Christmas collect toys for deprived children. Many members of the community enjoy the Christmas Santa Dash and Christmas Jumper Day. We also host Mary’s Meals porridge morning. We have non-uniform days in school throughout the year that help to raise money for a number of different charities. We dedicate our Advent & Lent activities to helping others.

Events culminate in our ultimate fundraising day at the end of the Summer term called ‘Share Day’ where fun and making memories is at its heart. Generations of St. Damian’s pupils have celebrated this day with much hard work and organisation in the build-up, the excitement of planning and wearing highly memorable fancy dress costumes and the tremendous work of form groups who find many innovative ways to raise money for charity.

Living out our Gospel Values

At St Damian’s we are firm believers that we not only show our belief in God through our prayers but that we are active in our community showing care and love for our neighbour. We live out our Gospel values by not ignoring the suffering of others around us but actively seeking to help those in need.

Our Caritas Ambassadors show a generous commitment to helping others in practical ways. We recognise that we are all made ‘Imago Dei’ so see the dignity of every person and hope to respond to people’s needs. We want to be witnesses to others. Our Caritas Ambassadors help to make our world a better place.

Charity Events this Academic year

Team Damian’s staff kickstarted Autumn term charity events by taking part in the Manchester 10K on Sunday 26th September 2021.

Pupils followed this by a breaktime chocolate & cake sale which took place at the start of October for Macmillan Cancer Support.

During Breast Cancer Awareness Day in October over £200 was raised during Pink Ribbon Day.

St. Damian’s Advent Charity was the Tameside Toy Appeal. Pupils were invited to bring in a toy or Christmas gift for disadvantaged pupils living in poverty in Tameside and to place it under the Christmas Tree.

Recently, St. Damian’s presented the phenomenal amount of £7000 to Macmillan Cancer Support which was an incredible achievement. The money will help Macmillan care for cancer patients & their families in the coming months.

Tameside Food Bank were presented with a cheque for £4000 by Year 8 pupils in assembly. The charity was truly overwhelmed by the generosity of St. Damian’s pupils and will use the money to replenish the stock of essential products that many families are desperately in need of on a day-to-day basis.