'It shows how nice people are': Youngsters gather hundreds of Easter eggs in appeal for Hartlepool Foodbank

Seaton Carew youngsters Scarlett Mason and Benjamin Cooper collected 326 Easter eggs after launching an appeal for Hartlepool Foodbank.

It comes after Scarlett became so concerned that children whose families use the food bank might not get an Easter egg this year that she decided to step in.

She called on her friend Benjamin Cooper to help and they launched their own Easter egg appeal.

The nine-year-olds, who both go to Holy Trinity Primary School, in Seaton Carew, each donated £6 from money they had received for their recent birthdays to get the ball rolling.

The pair also won backing from the Nationwide building society branch in Hartlepool's York Road, which became a collection point and also staged a raffle which raised £82 and added to the appeal.

The youngsters said they are delighted by how generous people have been and they never thought they would see so many eggs donated.

Scarlett said: “People have been so generous. When we started this I thought we might get one carrier bag of eggs but not this many. We want to say thank you to everyone who has helped.”

Benjamin added: “It has been great - way better than we ever thought.

“It shows how nice people are and that they really care. Thank you to all of them and to Nationwide as that has made a big difference.”

Scarlett came up with the idea after Benjamin staged similar appeals for Advent calendars over the last two Christmases. He was delighted that people stepped in with hundreds of chocolate calendars going to youngsters across the Hartlepool and Teesside area.

Scarlett created a poster which has been put up in shops and restaurants.

And after their appeal was put on Facebook the pair were delighted to get a call from the Nationwide Building Society in Hartlepool, which has agreed to act as a collection point.

Hartlepool Nationwide branch manager Paul Christal said: "We saw the advert and we were so inspired that we wanted to help them.

"We know that our customers are so generous and they thought it was a brilliant idea, they found it was a way that they could give Easter eggs if they didn't have anyone to hand them out to.

"We were very inspired by the two children."

The youngsters and the building society are planning to join forces again at the end of the year to stage a collection of Advent calendars for youngsters at Christmas.