- Winston’s Wish Is encouraging people to Make a Splash for Cash
- The national children’s charity is calling on local schools and businesses to hold a Wear Wellies Day on the 29th of February
- The UK’S first children’s and young people’s bereavement charity explains the clinical concept behind this fundraising initiative
The UK’s first children and young people’s bereavement charity Winston’s Wish is calling upon local communities to wear wellies on the 29th of February. This leap year, schools, workplaces and community groups are invited to turn puddles into playgrounds and don their wellies for a day of fundraising in aid of the charity.
The ask is simple, donate to wear wellies for a day and take on puddle themed fundraising activities all to help local bereaved children and young people.
Why not join in and make a splash this leap year?
As well as providing a fun initiative to get behind this February, wearing wellies is also a significant way of reminding people how grief is often presented in young children. ‘Puddle jumping’ is a term that is used by bereavement professionals to explain how children often seem to ‘puddle jump’ in and out of their grief, one minute presenting unfazed by their bereavement and the next struggling with their emotions.
Bereavement support worker Claire commented, “Sometimes adults can find children’s grief a little surprising. One moment the child can be crying and inconsolable, the next moment they can be asking ‘what’s for tea?’ or ‘can I go to my friend’s house?’ They can appear quiet and withdrawn one day, but then noisy and full of fun the next.
“We call this ‘Puddle jumping’. It’s as if these bereaved children are jumping in and out of the puddles of their grief. Parents and teachers can be reassured that this is completely normal. It’s important to remember that we all grieve differently and there is no right or wrong way to grieve and with the right support at the right time, these children can go on to lead full lives.”
Estimates suggest that, devastatingly, each day, more than 100 children in the UK are bereaved of a parent and that figure doesn’t equate how many young people are coping with the death of a sibling, grandparent, friend, or another significant individual in their lives.
As the UK’s first children and young people’s bereavement charity, Winston’s Wish has been supporting grieving youngsters and their families in the local area and further across the UK for more than thirty years.
Winston’s Wish, which has been supporting grieving young people for more than thirty years, is inviting schools, nurseries, after-school clubs as well as local businesses and offices to wear their wellies on the 29th of February, or on any day that suits them in the month, to raise cash for the charity and to spread awareness of the reality local bereaved children and their families are facing.
Wear Wellies has gained considerable traction in the last few years with schools, corporations, and youth groups from all over the UK donning their wellies and making a splash for charity.