The St Petroc’s Society which helps the homeless of Cornwall have gratefully pocketed a cheque for £1,000 from the pupils of Truro School.

Outreach worker Stuart Rolls, who is a former pupil, returned to his old school today to receive the cheque in front of the whole school community.

“My mum told me the school was calling me in and I thought they must be chasing my Geography prep that was due in back in 1997. Luckily it turned out they wanted to hand over a generous donation to St Petroc’s. I never imagined when I was a boy here, sitting in whole-school assembly, that I would one day be a guest speaker sitting on the stage in front of 900 people.”

The money was raised by a number of schemes thought up by the pupils’ own Charity Committee, which included an Austerity Lunch just before Christmas when the school kitchens served just a soup and a roll and donated the cost savings. Various Tutor Groups also came up with ideas such as break-time cake sales.

St Petroc’s has five hostels; two in Truro, two in Bodmin and another in Newquay. Their work with the homeless depends entirely on private fund-raising. As Stuart explained, “The single homeless are those who, more often than not, fall outside the responsibility of statutory authorities. Very often they are sleeping rough and may have a range of difficulties, including drug or alcohol dependency, mental ill health, relationship problems or an offending lifestyle, which contribute to their homelessness and social exclusion. St Petroc’s exists to provide for this particular group in our county. It’s great that the relatively comfortable kids at Truro School are thinking about these less fortunate people.”

February 2008