Andrea Hoyland reports that this year sees the highest number of Catholic Schools taking part in the Big Lent Walk as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ to live out their Jubilee pledge. 

More Catholic schools in Portsmouth than ever have signed up for this year’s Big Lent Walk with CAFOD, in a wave of enthusiasm by young people that comes hot on the heels of an extraordinary response to the Jubilee Year.

A record number of pupils are taking part in the charity’s annual fundraising challenge, walking 200km over 40 days, in the biggest Big Lent Walk so far.  In addition, over 1,000 schools have committed to keep living out their Jubilee pledge as Pilgrims of Hope.

The children of St. Anthony’s Catholic Primary School in Fareham recently took part in a Big Lent Walk in their school grounds and raised £1690. Steve Deadman, a CAFOD schools volunteer, inspired the children so much with his workshops that the school managed to triple their original target. Lindsey Leask, Deputy Headteacher at the school said, ‘The children were extremely motivated by Steve’s talk, which was what gave us the incentive to raise enough to feed two floating farm families for a year. So the children were super excited to have raised enough for 7 families!’