Primary School children in Throckley raise money to restore image of the Virgin Mary

Students from Throckley Primary School have raised funds to restore the face of the Virgin Mary on a stained glass window at St Mary the Virgin Church. The window became defective several years ago and the church has been missing the visage of one of the key figures in the Christmas story ever since.

That will soon change however as a group of Year 2 children noticed the defect when they were visiting recently. They then started a fundraising campaign through school in order to restore the window. They did a bag pack at the local Sainsbury's which raised an amazing £500, covering the costs of the restoration.

Further showing the generosity of the community, Simon Harvey of Borderdale Glass has agreed to carry out the restoration of the stained glass window for no more than the £500 raised by the children.

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The Reverend Allison Harding, vicar of the parish of Newburn, has been blown away by the generosity and thoughtfulness of the children.

"It started when they came into St Mary’s for a visit and asked lots of excellent questions about things in the church, such as the font, the organ, the communion table and other features. Then they noticed one of the stained glass windows had a defect and that Mary no longer had a face. I explained that Mary had never had a face while I’ve been in the parish.”

The stained glass window of The Virgin Mary (Joseph Tulip)

"I was amazed and delighted when the children decided that they could do something to put this right", said Allison, who joined the children during their bag pack.

"I saw just how polite and assertive the children were. They asked everyone who walked through the door to ‘give for a new face for Mary at St Mary’s.'"

"The school presented me with an enormous cheque. We thanked them and God and the children will be VIP guests to see Mary’s new face at St Mary’s once the repair has been done. I’m blown away. That's the only way that I can describe my response to the generosity and initiative of the Year 2 children of Throckley Primary School."

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