COMMUNITY spirit saved the day as Journal readers stepped up to help St Andrew’s Primary School beat the vandals and held its most successful Christmas bazaar yet.

As reported in last week’s Journal, the day could have been ruined after yobs broke into a storage shed and wrecked donations for the annual event, which raises money for school funds.

Many of the things that were broken, trampled or trashed were toys that the children had brought in from home and prizes for the tombola and lucky dip.

However, after reading about the damage, local people and businesses rallied round to save the fair.

They donated prizes, toys and gifts and also gave money to replace what had been damaged.

“It was absolutely fantastic,” said teaching assistant Ali Andrews, who helped organise the event.

“We were sent toys, a hamper, donations of money, biscuits and chocolates.

“Some came from shops and local businesses while others were donations from people coming in off the street.”

One particularly moving letter of support and donation came from a man who attended St Andrews 70 years ago and was shocked to hear of the destruction at his old school.

The Laverstock school was also lent a candy floss machine for the fair and had more than enough donations to get the threatened lucky dip and tombola stalls back up and running.

The bazaar raised £1,500 – about £300 more than in previous years – which will pay for a Christmas meal for the children, end of term events and help subsidise school trips.

“It was a great success,” added Mrs Andrews. “The atmosphere was amazing.

“We had lots of people coming to the fair who we don’t normally see because people in the community wanted to show their support.

“And we raised more money than ever before.”

The break-in happened on November 20 when the vandals tipped up boxes of donations, trampled on art equipment, tore up materials for games and poured the contents of tins of food on uniforms and gifts due to be sold at the bazaar.

Staff faced the difficult job of breaking the news to the children – many of whom had donated their toys and teddies.

But the despair turned to joy as the donations and offers of support poured in.

“We’ve all learnt that although there is some bad in this world there is an awful lot more good,” said Mrs Andrews.

“And that community spirit really is alive.”

The school was still receiving donations this week and has added them to the prizes for the Friends of St Andrew's regular Bingo evening which takes places at the school tomorrow at 7pm.