Children give up their beds for 'Giant Sleepover' world record attempt » Communities » 24dash.com

Children gave up their beds at home last night to sleep out at over a thousand venues as part of The Giant Sleepover World Record attempt, raising money for children caught up in emergencies

The recent cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) and the earthquake in China continue to affect the lives of millions of children. Each night many children in Myanmar (Burma) and China prepare to spend another night outside the safety of their homes, living in temporary shelters or sleeping under tarpaulins, sometimes separated from relations.

On Saturday 14th June children across the UK slept away from their homes for one night to raise money for Save the Childrens Emergency Fund to help the charity continue its vital work with children caught up in disasters and emergencies around the world.

This Saturday June 14th over 40,000 children across the UK gave up their beds at home to sleep out at over 1200 Giant Sleepover venues. While raising vital money for children around the world - and for one night sharing the experience of what is a daily reality for many children affected by emergencies - all the children participating were attempting to break the World Record - and they succeeded!

The new World Record holders enjoyed a variety of fun activites before settling down for the night. Groups of young people slept out at a number of 'special sleepover venues' across the UK including:

The London Dungeon
Save the Children Head Quarters in Farringdon
Lord's Cricket Ground
Outside London there were Giant Sleepovers at the following special venues:

Weymouth Sea Life Centre (Gweek, Cornwall)
Blackpool Sea Life Centre
Scarborough Sea Life Centre
Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre
Blackgang Chine (Isle of Wight)
Spinnaker Tower (Portsmouth)
Explosion! The Museum of Naval Firepower at Gosport
Gilwell Park (Essex)
York Dungeons
Loch Lomond Aquarium
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
National Railway Museum
Trentham Estates
Trentham Monkey Forest
Ironbridge Gorge
 

Please see the attached for pictures of children who took part in the Giant Sleepover event at London venues.

Tanya Steele, Director of Supporter Relations and Fundraising at Save the Children said: Were delighted that so many young people took part in The Giant Sleepover to raise vital funds for vulnerable children caught up in emergency situations around the world. Congratulations to everyone for breaking the World Record! It's great that everyone enjoyed the sleepover - and that these children were able to spend the night in a safe environment away from home. Save the Children works in disaster situations to try and make sure that children caught up in emergencies are also kept safe. Right now we're working in Burma and China after the recent natural disasters, helping children and their families, and the money raised will help Save the Children to keep responding immediately to emergencies whenever they hit. We always welcome and encourage young people to get involved with fundraising. The annual Giant Sleepover event is a fantastic way for them to do so.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For more information about The Giant Sleepover and Save the Children please call either Susannah Parker on 0207 012 6848 or email s.parker@savethechildren.org.uk. We can provide pictures from Burma and China for you to use.
For more information about Save the Children please visit www.savethechildren.org.uk
 

For more information about The Giant Sleepover visit www.giantsleepover.com or call 0870 240 1640. The sign up time to receive a goodie bag has now passed but you can still hold a sleepover.
 

All the money raised for Save the Children will go towards the charitys Childrens Emergency Fund (CEF). The CEF means the charity is able to respond immediately to an emergency. Having the funds in place before an emergency means Save the Children can deploy its team of emergency response experts immediately. The CEF also enables the charity to respond to emergencies that are not always in the headlines.
The Giant Sleepover was created in 2004 to unify children across the world encouraging them to have fun while raising money for charity. Since then the annual fund-raising event has gone from strength to strength and is already the holder of a Guinness World Record.
The event is endorsed by all the major youth groups in the UK including The Scout Association and Girlguiding UK.
 

The children taking part are mainly aged 6 11 years with slightly more girls (60%) than boys
 

Each child and their parents receive a goodie bag on event and a Treasure Chest for their group which includes Top Trumps, Lush Products, Titan publications and Horrid Henry books.
 

BT, one of the event sponsors and supporters, are hosting a communication challenge for the children and are also offering the chance to win wonderful prizes at the Giant Sleepover awards.
 

Lush, are providing ethically produced, handmade goodies for the chliden, and supporting distribution and other essential Giant Sleepover activities. Leading the way with naked non-packaged goods produced with organics, Fair Trade and Community Trade schemes, Lush represents another facet of the Giant Sleepovers drive to be eco-friendly.
· Nortbert Dentressangle are kindly providing comprehensive distribution across the whole of the UK - which would be impossible without them - ensuring all 1,200 groups are provided with their treasure chests and goodies