FOUR of Scotland’s top philanthropists have each donated £25,000 to fund places for the nation’s young people to take up the Social Bite Sleep in the Park fundraising challenge.
2000 places at Sleep in the Park – the world’s biggest sleepout – are on offer to school pupils over 16 and students.
The donation has been made by a group of the country’s leading philanthropists; John Watson (founder of the Watson Foundation), Bruce Wishart (managing director of Empteezy), Alan McLeish (managing director of QTS Group) and The Weir Charitable Trust.
Participants in the Sleep in the Park aren’t able to buy tickets for the rough-sleeping event, which features exclusive busking sets from the likes of Liam Gallagher, Deacon Blue, Amy MacDonald and Frightened Rabbit. Instead, they pay an initial £50 fundraising amount and commit to raising at least another £50 more.
The £100,000 donation will pay the initial £50 fundraising amount for 2000 young people across the country. All Scottish young people over 16 and in full-time education are invited to claim their place.
Social Bite hopes the event will raise a total of £4 million which will be invested in solutions to try and end homelessness in Scotland in a five-year period.
Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of Social Bite, said: “I’m so grateful for the support from John, Bruce, Alan and The Weir Charitable Trust.
“It’s great that we’re able to invite so many young people to take part. They are the future voices and leaders of our country.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here