THREE young people from Pocklington have won praise for spending their summer holidays helping out at a local charity, raising money, and supporting York Foodbank.

Eve Southernwood Brown, Scarlett Mapplebeck and Alex Rothwell-Inch took part in North Yorkshire Police’s lifestyle challenge over the summer, and spent their holidays helping at the Joseph Trust, based at Rosswell Grange near their old primary school.

The three friends helped by digging potatoes, planting blackberries and strawberries, feeding chickens, ducks and geese, then collecting eggs for sale to bake cakes which they then also sold.

The charity’s manager Dan Beech was so pleased with the young volunteers’ efforts that he wrote to their headteacher at Melbourne Primary School to praise their work.

He said they had raised £91 for the trust by selling produce, and added that the trio were “tremendous fun to work with, confident, charming, switched on and and very funny” and a credit to their old primary school.

Eve, Scarlett and Alex, all 11, have now moved up to secondary school at Woldgate School in Pocklington.

Mum Sadie Rothwell-Inch said they were delighted to see how well the three had done in a short space of time.

She added: “They didn’t have long for their project, and there was only three of them. Most of the Lifestyle teams have the whole summer. Between parents working, Eve, Scarlett and Alex did not have very long but they really threw themselves into it.”

They also helped York Foodbank, she added, as some of the fresh produce they harvested at the Joseph Trust was donated to the foodbank.

The Joseph Trust works with students in years 6-10 who are no longer in mainstream education, or are in imminent danger of being excluded, teaching practical skills and rebuilding confidence.