FANTASTIC support was shown for a hamper appeal at a Weymouth high school.

The Wey Valley School launched a hamper appeal to help elderly residents in the local area.

The appeal was launched after a chance meeting between Wey Valley teacher Marie Claridge and an elderly lady who was down on her luck.

Marie explained what the school did for the appeal.

She said: “Having met this kind lady, I brought together staff from the school, to gather ideas and help towards bringing the whole school contributing to this worthwhile appeal.

“The hamper involved both staff and students bringing in items of food from a carefully selected list of suitable items for the elderly.

“A huge response from every tutor group enabled us to create 30 different hampers filled with sweets, tins, Christmas cakes, as well as savoury items such as crackers and pickles.”

Students including, Reece Matthews, Tanisha Matthews, Kevin Tissera, Adam Priddice, Sean Roberts and Charlie Ayles then visited elderly residents in Weymouth to deliver the hampers.

Kevin said: “It was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed giving the hampers to the elderly who don’t have anybody to celebrate with at Christmas.”

Wey Valley teacher Eileen Glynn, thanked the local companies that helped make the appeal possible.

She said: “A school Christmas card designed by our media team at school was included in the hamper with £3 of vouchers, kindly donated by the Co-operative store in Weymouth.”

She also thanked Tesco who provided an item for each hamper.

Acting principal at Wey Valley, Sara Adams wanted to thank all the students, staff and parents for helping to make a difference at Christmas.

She said: “I would like to thank our students, parents and staff for their fantastic contributions and due to the overwhelming response, we were able to donate a large amount to the Salvation Army who grateful at this time of the year.”

The Salvation Army launches an appeal every Christmas to try and help needy families, the homeless and the elderly who might be alone or in need of food during the festive period.

For more information and to help the Salvation Army appeal yourself go to www.salvationarmy.org.uk.