Celebrating our lottery support
A GROUP of young people from Tyneside enjoyed a day out at Edinburgh Zoo to celebrate a special anniversary for Children North East.
It is 10 years since the region’s own children’s charity began its partnership with players of the People’s Postcode Lottery who have raised more than £1.6 million to date for Children North East, enabling it to expand its life-changing work.
To mark this milestone, 13 boys and girls from the charity’s Young People’s Service, based in Newcastle, travelled to the zoo, with youngsters from Children 1st, Scotland’s National Children’s Charity.
The Scottish charity was also celebrating a decade of support from players whilst the zoo showcased its WildGenes Lab, which has been supported by funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery for five years.
Youngsters enjoyed an animal handling session where they got to meet a variety of captivating creatures including an armadillo, corn snake and tortoise.
Two lucky lads also became scientists for a morning alongside People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador, Judie McCourt, getting a privileged peek inside the Wild Genes Lab.
Jennifer Kaden, the senior lab technician at the zoo, showed them how to extract the DNA from strawberries. She explained that the lab conducts cutting edge genetic research which helps to inform conservation efforts across the globe as well as playing a key role in breeding programmes and aiding the understanding of species behaviour in the wild.
Their work has already helped in the fight against the illegal ivory trade by using DNA to track elephant tusks to a particular location.
Judie McCourt, People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador, said: “The support that Children North East has received from players of People’s Postcode Lottery over the past decade is just incredible. Players can be proud that this long term partnership is helping the charity to change the lives of many disadvantaged children across the region.”
Leigh Elliott, deputy chief executive of Children North East, added: “The zoo trip was a great way of celebrating the amazing support the players of People’s Postcode Lottery have given us over the last ten years.”