EAST CHESHIRE HOSPICE Dojo ninjas’ grand effort
A LOCAL club that allows children to learn computer programming, has raised £1,000 for East Cheshire Hospice.
Wilmslow CoderDojo is a club for seven to 14-year-olds which aims to help children with an interest in coding within a ‘Dojo’ environment, where they learn from and help one another while developing their skills.
“As part of the global CoderDojo movement we are a totally voluntary organisation,” said Wilmslow Dojo champion Rob Curran.
“We have a number of adult and teenage mentors who give up their time on a Sunday morning to help kids write code.
“We are fortunate to be supported by AstraZeneca and Manchester Science Partnerships who very kindly allow us to gather on their site once a month.
“All our equipment has been donated to the group by our volunteers, generous organisations, and members of the public.
“We’ve managed to run our Dojo over the past five years with absolutely no income although parents contribute to the cost of refreshments and we felt it appropriate that this money should go back into the community and we decided to donate any money raised through these refreshments to East Cheshire Hospice.”
The club is open to all and free to attend although it is proving so popular that places are offered on a first come first served basis.
Lisa Ball, hospice community fundraiser, visited a recent Dojo and was presented with the cheque by the Dojo’s regular ninjas followed by a demonstration of the ninjas’ work by the ninjas themselves.
Lisa said: “It was amazing to see their work.
“First I was shown a game where the player is a hungry shark chasing fish and then I was shown some coding on a Raspberry Pi computer, running within the popular Minecraft game.
“It was amazing to see the results of these keen youngsters’ work and we are very grateful for their support.”
Wilmslow CoderDojo typically runs on the last Sunday of each month at Alderley Park Conference Centre.
For more information visit coderdojo.com.