Gazette's 100,000 Smiles appeal shortlisted in Society of Editors regional press awards

The appeal, which helped to raise £100,000 for a new playground for children with special needs, has been chosen from newspaper campaigns across the country for the Making a Difference showcase.

The initiative highlights the positive role of local media and shows the difference newspapers can make to the lives of people in the community.

As part of the showcase, readers are being asked to vote for their favourite campaign.

Please support the 100,000 Smiles appeal by clicking HERE and selecting on "Smiles that Say We Have Done It" article.

Please also support the campaign with a message on Twitter using the hashtag #MakingaDifference.

Your help is much appreciated.

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Here, WENDY BRADING tells the story about how, thanks the support of the community, a dream became a reality.

THE playground was quiet.

Two swings hung silently in one corner.

               The old playground

What should have been a vibrant, busy play area, ringing with laughter, was forlorn and muted.

This was the playground for Lexden Springs School – sparse, barren, sad.

The school cares for children who have severe learning difficulties.

Some have autism, some physical problems, some behavioural. To all these children, play is vital.

It helps to build their muscles and helps them to integrate and communicate socially.

Most important of all, however, play means they get precious moments of independence, freedom and pleasure.

At the back of the school in Halstead Road was a small field, neglected and unused – but the parent teacher association had a vision.

It wanted to transform the piece of land into a play area with equipment which could be used by all the students, including those in wheelchairs.

But they had a problem.

The students at the school are the invisible children – their disabilities mean they cannot walk to school on their own or play in public parks.

The demands of caring for a disabled child are so vast, the parents had no time nor energy to take on the £100,000 fundraising challenge on their own.

So Charlotte Foxley, the chairman of the parents teacher association, phoned the paper and asked simply: “Will you help us?”

The mission was not only to raise the money for the play area, but also to raise awareness of the children and their families and their daily challenges.

The Gazette wrote a series of articles about the children and donations and support came in from across the community.

The PTA sourced grants and pledges, held events and sold raffle tickets and gradually the total got ever nearer to its goal.

Finally, we ran an article about charismatic student Devrim Ozturk and an anonymous donor contacted the school to ask how much was needed to complete the appeal – they were £22,000 short of the total.

The next day a cheque for £22,000 was sent into the school.

It meant work could begin on creating the play area at the school and when the children returned from their summer holidays, it was in place.

Charlotte said: “I was thrilled when told the 100,000 Smiles appeal has been shortlisted for the regional press awards.

“What an unbelievable difference the playground has made to our children at Lexden Springs, it really is overwhelming.

“The difference to behaviour has been extremely positive and now the children can enjoy bespoke equipment to suit them as individuals on their door step.

“The wheelchair swing is something you just can’t find in mainstream play parks and for those older children, it means they can also play on equipment which they would be otherwise too big for in local play parks.

“It has given the school a huge opportunity to develop the children in so many ways – I can’t express in words how wonderful it is.

“I couldn’t have asked for better support from the Gazette and Wendy Brading who spent many hours getting to know the school so she could really understand the problems we face and why it was so important to raise the £100,000 for the school children.

“We all would like to say a big thank you to all our supporters, as without them or the Gazette we wouldn’t have managed to raise the money on our own in such a short time.”