A HUGE thank you to the schools in Chesham for raising £3804 towards the new playground in Lowndes Park.

On 12th February, many of the schools across Chesham took part in a mufti day by wearing ‘Something Colourful’ in aid of Love Lowndes. It was a wonderful community initiative which involved over 2000 children and was spearheaded by Nuno Alexandre, Headteacher of Chartridge Combined School. We think that this is the first time that the local schools have come together for an inter-school mufti day to raise funds and awareness for a community project.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr Alexandre said:

“ We were incredibly proud to take part in the ‘Fund the Fun’ non-uniform day. It was wonderful to witness the participation of numerous schools in Chesham and the surrounding areas. The children have shown such enthusiasm and dedication towards this project, which aims to raise funds for the development of the playpark at Lowndes Park. I would like to extend our appreciation to all the volunteers at Love Lowndes for leading such a commendable initiative that showcases the unity and support within our local area. The children of Chesham will benefit hugely from the enhancements to the park which will become an even greater asset to our wonderful community.”

Claire Wyatt, Project Leader of Love Lowndes said:

“Wow, we’ve been blown away by the response to the mufti day! Seeing so many schools and children come together to support us has been amazing; and we’ve raised way more than we could have dreamed. Such engagement really helps with our grant fund applications. And it also sends a powerful message to our County and Town Councils that the park is loved and that our community desperately want a new playground.”

As well as wearing colourful clothes for the day, some of the children contributed to the campaign by designing their dream playground! Some of these can be seen below. Watch this Facebook video of the pupils at Brushwood Junior School telling us what they would like to see in the new playground! We very much look forward to working with the schools again on this project in the future.

Thank you to the following schools for taking part, and the generous donations from the parents:

Brushwood Junior School
Chartridge Combined School
Chesham Prep School
Elmtree Infant & Nursery School
Hawridge and Cholesbury Church of England School
Heritage House School
Ivingswood Academy
Ley Hill School
Newtown School
Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School
Waterside Primary Academy

A few comments from parents who contributed:

“Wonderful colourful idea in drab January to involve the children in a fantastic project” Lorna Barnes, local parent via Crowdfunder

“Fab Initiative! Lowndes is such a lovely park and local kids deserve a nice, safe place to play” Lucy Clark – local parent via Crowdfunder

“We Love Lowndes and cannot wait for this new playground for our son and all children to enjoy!” Jonida Andoni – local parent via Crowdfunder

“We have such a beautiful park in Chesham and it deserves all the love and attention to bring it up to date. Big thanks to everyone who’s making this happen and for giving our kids a new amazing park they can enjoy for many years to come.” Sabrina Norris, local parent via Crowdfunder

Love Lowndes is a volunteer group in Chesham who is working with Chesham Town Council and Friends of Lowndes Park to raise over £150k to build a new playground in Lowndes Park, Chesham. The current playground is worn out, inaccessible and badly designed, the children of Chesham deserve so much better! Chesham Town Council has created an ambitious masterplan for Lowndes Park, the funds raised by Love Lowndes will contribute to the first phase of the plan, to create a new, exciting and accessible play area for the children of Chesham.

So far we have raised £50,000 towards the new playground.

Find out more about the campaign, and donate via our Love Lowndes Crowdfunder website. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or X and watch our campaign video.

If you have been inspired to run your own fundraising event to raise money for Love Lowndes, or wish to ask us any questions about the campaign, please email us at lovelowndes@gmail.com