Lower 6 pupil, Imie James, tells us how she has been hard at work putting her creative skills to use to spread smiles and raise money for charity...

"Having been privileged to sell my ‘Send a Smile’ Christmas cats, trees, hedgehogs, and angels in a local flower in the lead up to Christmas 2022, I decided to donate all of my profits from the shop sales to the Coronary Care Department at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

Heart health is an area that is very important to me and my family, and I wanted the money to help in some way with the vital work they do in their department. As a result of all the kindness of customers resulting sales made in the shop raised a total of £104 for the Coronary Care Unit at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, which was presented to Mrs Lynn Crombie from the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Charity. Hopefully I sent many smiles as well!

More recently, with Valentine's Day upon us yet again, I wanted to embrace the meaning of it being a celebration of love and let everyone know others care about and love them, so I once again decided to recycle and re-use books to fold Valentine's hearts and hedgehogs. I also used my knitting skills to knit Valentine's themed hearts and rabbits. To continue my mission to make people smile and let them know I am thinking of them, and they are not alone, I delivered my handmade items to some local residents.

Helping elderly people know they are cared for and loved is also a subject very close to my heart. So in any spare time, I have been busy knitting bright, colourful twiddle muffs for people with dementia. Twiddle muffs are tubes of knitted wool in which patients can put their hands and rest them on their laps. They are a sensory therapy tool and help by keeping restless hands warm and calm. On the inside and outside of each Twiddle Muff I sewed an assortment of bows, buttons, bells, beads, and pom poms providing forms of tactile, visual, and sensory stimulation for them to enjoy touching and that will distract and reassure them.

To date I have made nine twiddle muffs that I am donating to the Dementia Unit of a local care home. I hope it will create many smiles!"

Imie has now donated a series of her twiddle muffs to Hethersett Hall Care Home which has made the residents very happy. This was recently featured in the May 2023 publication of the Hethersett Herald which you can read via this link (page 47).