BUNGEEING FOR CHARITY

After retiring as Headmistress of St. Anne’s Primary School in the Northern Ireland town of Donaghadee, Rosemary Budding didn’t do what many retirees do and relax and take it easy. Instead she travelled six thousand kilometers from home to volunteer at the Father Ray Foundation.

Originally planning to stay for just six months at the Foundation, altogether Rosemary spent four years teaching English at the Redemptorist Vocational School for People with Disabilities.

Upon returning home to Donaghadee Rosemary was contemplating what to do to commemorate her seventieth birthday. An idea came to her head, an idea to raise funds for the school and for the students in Thailand she had grown so fond of.

Her idea took her even further than Thailand, half way around the world to the south island of New Zealand where, with long elastic ropes tied to her legs, she jumped off a bridge and bungeed for the students of Thailand.

Rosemary recently returned to Thailand, and to the school where she helped change the lives of the students and donated the proceeds of the money raised by bungeeing off a bridge. A cheque for ten thousand pounds was donated to the school and will be used to esure young adults living with a disability can receive an education.

Derek Franklin