Birthday boy asks pals to help pay for charity meals
A CARING Glasgow schoolboy dedicated his birthday to helping provide life-changing meals to hungry children around the world.
Seven-year-old Oscar Pirie asked friends invited to his birthday party to donate to the Scottish-based charity Mary’s Meals instead of buying him a present.
As a result of his efforts, he was able to raise more than £200, which will be doubled as part of the charity’s Double The Love match-funding campaign.
Oscar, who attends Glendale Gaelic Primary School in Pollokshields, is delighted that the boosted donation will now go towards providing even more meals for impoverished children living in some of the world’s poorest countries.
He said: “My mum gave me the idea of raising money from my birthday party for charity and when I thought about it, I knew that would be a good idea.
“I had heard about Mary’s Meals as my grandad talks a lot about the charity.
“I watched some films of the charity and it made me realise just how lucky I am. I was amazed to find out that it only cost Mary’s Meals £13.90 to feed a child for a year, which I didn’t think was a huge amount to ask my friends to donate, instead of giving me a present.
“As soon as my friends arrived at my birthday party, they started handing me donations for Mary’s Meals and some of them wanted to give me more than £13.90. It was amazing.
“My mum and I visited the Mary’s Meals shop in Oban to hand over the donation and I was so excited to find out it is being doubled to help more children.”
The Mary’s Meals Double The Love cam- paign runs until December 31, during which time donations to the appeal will be matched, up to a total of £1.9million, thanks to a group of three major funders.
This includes an award from players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Mary’s Meals reaches more than 1.2 million children with a nutritious meal every school day, in 15 countries around the world.
For further information, please visit marysmeals. org.uk