Fishing For Schools launches £380,000 fundraising campaign

Nearly £60,000 was raised for the Fishing For Schools (F4S) campaign by "fishy goings on" in Wiltshire last weekend.

F4S, run by the Countryside Alliance's Charlie Jardine, is a programme that uses angling as a teaching tool for secondary school pupils, to explore core subjects like maths, English and natural sciences while getting them involved in a new hobby.

However F4S is so popular that the number of schools applying to take part outstrips availability, so a campaign was launched this month (September) to raise £380,000, enough to sustain the charity and help it grow over the next three years.

A fundraising dinner was held by the kind invitation of Mr and Mrs George Stephenson in Barford St Martin, Wiltshire on 21 September.

And kind guests helped raise nearly £60,000 for the charity with donations, an auction and a game that involved hooking fluorescent toy dolphins from a stream.

Mr Jardine said: "I'm absolutely thrilled with the total raised. The campaign is a defining point for Fishing For Schools and marks a new era of growth for education of young people to promote a lifelong love of angling and of an understanding of rural interests."

For more information, or to donate to F4S, contact the Countryside Alliance on 0207 840 9220.