Charla and Morgan Win North Yorkshire Police Award

Congratulations to Charla (Y9) and Morgan (Y9) who received the North Yorkshire Police Awards’ Suzanne Asquith Dream Come True Challenge award for their original marine conservation book, Help Save the Turtles.

The girls won second prize overall in the North Yorkshire Police’s Lifestyle Challenge, which gives young people aged between 10 and 17 a positive project to do over the break. Teams were invited to think of a project that they could carry out over the summer holidays that would benefit the community. They then had until the end of September to work on their project, recording all they did in a log book provided by the police.

Charla, who wrote the story, worked with her younger sister Katelyn (Y7) and Morgan, who illustrated the book. Morgan’s younger sister Lorna (Y7) and Katelyn helped create the backgrounds for Morgan’s illustrations. The book aims to encourage children aged 4-8 years to better understand marine conservation and how they can help reduce waste ending up in the ocean. Charla and Morgan have visited local libraries and primary schools to read their book to the younger children, as well as donating one copy of the book to each library in York. Their project has also helped to raise funds for a friend to replace her disability bicycle. The York Press reports the self-published book’s first edition sold out, and it has already gone to reprint.

North Yorkshire Police’s website lists the achievements of the girls’ project, and that they wanted to make their community aware of the changes our planet faces.

They raised £200 for a disability bike for a 13-year-old with autism, epilepsy and other needs. They raised £80 and purchased Christmas and Halloween crafts for York inspirational kids. Two of them cut their hair and donated it to the Little Princess Trust, plus held a community picnic for York inspirational kids and invited other members of the community.
For the Conservation Challenge they designed posters and wrote to local shops to raise awareness, asking for donations. They arranged a zero waste picnic for the community, which Tesco donated £20 for, and they used the money to buy tubs to put the food in – trying to buy food which wasn’t wrapped in plastic.
They shared food and talked to the families about what they were doing to help the environment. They held a balloon draw to raise money with donated prizes from local people and businesses. The prizes included panto tickets, a spa day and a tour of the Houses of Parliament, vouchers and prosecco.
They all wrote, illustrated and published a book encouraging 5-7 year olds to cut down their single plastic waste, which was made from a recycled sketch book for illustrations called ‘Help Save the Turtles’.
They donated one book to each library in York and went into the library at Acomb Explore Library to read their book to 5-7 year olds, the book being sold online from Amazon. They also had publicity in the York Press about what they had done, plus a TV interview. The money raised went towards the disability bike and crafts.
They received lots of publicity via Facebook and social media. They learned about children with disabilities and how to be inclusive and supportive.

The Mount’s unique Quaker ethos aims to encourage girls to make a positive contribution to our changing world.