Bunnies on the run

Thursday 10 April 2014

Easter came early to young children in Jersey yesterday morning as the Easter bunny hopped from school to school giving out chocolate eggs and raising money to help sick children who have to go to the UK for treatment.

It’s the second time Pete Wright has run around dressed as the Easter bunny. Last year he was in training for the Marathon de Sables – the toughest foot race on earth and decided that whilst getting race fit he could help out The Grace Crocker Family Support Foundation. He managed to raise £2,750 for the charity, after being sponsored by his employer Goldmoney.

This year some bunny friends hopped on board, visiting nearly a dozen schools and nurseries and they hope they'll have raised even more for the charity.

Grace Crocker was born in Jersey with hypo-plastic left heart syndrome and had open heart surgery at just five days old. Grace’s family had to move to Southampton for three months to be with her, but sadly Grace died aged just 11 weeks.

The family set up a charity to help others with sick children, giving financial and emotional assistance to them when they have to go away for treatment.

Pete said he and his wife decided to carry on the Bunny run after meeting Grace’s father: “We listened to the heart-breaking story of what happened to Grace, and how her family wanted to do something positive to remember her, and decided we had to help. Last year we had a brilliant day meeting the children and delivering the eggs and the feedback was so good that we decided to make it an annual event.”

GoldMoney’s Chief Executive Officer Geoff Turk said: “Losing a child is something no parent wants to contemplate, but if you have added stress through having to finance a stay away from home then that can only make things worse. Pete’s fundraising idea is a fun way to help this very worthwhile charity.”

Sports Bugs will also be organizing an Easter Egg Hunt at La Petit Ecole in aid of the charity.

You can find out more about the Grace Crocker Family Support Foundation on their website: www.gracecrocker.org