Nelly’s badges earn hundreds for refugees
A LITTLE girl raised more than £200 selling hand made badges to support Ukrainian refugees.
Nelly Fleetwood, from Ainsdale, became upset at seeing Ukrainian refugees crossing the border into Poland on TV and decided she wanted to help. After talking to her mum Toni Fleetwood, she came up with the idea of making badges to sell to friends at school.
To fund the project Nelly took the money she had been given by her grandmother at Christmas to buy materials.
Toni said: “She is only four and they haven’t been teaching her about it in school so when we explained the situation it upset her, so she wanted to find a way to help. It’s made her feel like she is helping other kids.”
The badges were a success and sold out nearly instantly at Shoreside Primary School.
Toni said: “We didn’t expect them to sell out so quickly; we bought one box and thought that would be enough, I have just had to order more.”
Since then parents and friends have donated larger sums to help support the fund, including Nelly’s uncle, professional golfer Tommy Fleetwood.
Nelly makes the badges herself, with just a little bit of her from her mum. Toni added: “She does the bulk of the work, but she does have to use a glue gun so I help with that part but she keeps gluing my fingers together!
“The support around has been amazing and people have been posting photos of them wearing the badges on social media. Nelly’s four brothers have all bought one, the whole family is supporting her.”
Nelly doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon and her mum now wants to set up a Facebook page to help sell the badges.
Toni said: “We want to set up a page because Nelly wants to carry on, everyone has been asking for one so we didn’t think it would take off the way it did. The whole family is just so proud of her.”