Forres Academy students win Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) challenge and £3000 for RNLI Moray

THREE Forres Academy students have won £3000 for charity using their presentation powers.

Judges chose Brooke Wright (13), Katie Mitchell (14) and Esme Bews (13) as the winning team for this year’s annual Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) challenge for second year pupils.

The citizenship programme empowers young people to make a difference in their communities while developing skills.

YPI is managed and principally funded by the Wood Group Foundation, with a grant of £3000 given to the winning group of each participating school for their chosen charity.

A Forres Academy spokesperson explained: “Pupils championed their chosen charity through teamwork, research, and consultation, producing a presentation exemplifying the work and needs of the charity in our area.

“The seven teams who reached the final delivered excellent presentations making it a difficult task for the judges - Carinne Taylor from DYW Moray, head teacher Mrs Jan Sinclair and deputy head Mr Ross Jagger - to choose a winning team.

“After much deliberation, ‘RNLI Moray’ by Brooke, Katie, and Esme won the judge’s vote with their informal, informative, chatty and witty presentation.

“The girls thought it a worthy cause when they chose from a list of charities that guarantee to spend the money locally.”

Lifeboats have been launching into the Moray Firth from Buckie for over 145 years and the crews have been honoured with awards for gallantry.

Today the station operates the largest RNLI lifeboat, the Severn class.

The spokesperson added: “Congratulations to the winners and to all the pupils who participated.

“Thanks also to the staff of the English/RME department who enabled the venture.”