The sky's the limit for Sywell ten-year-olds as air museum fundraiser takes off

A trio of friends from Sywell with a passion for airplanes nicknamed 'The Flying Funders' have joined forces to raise money for a museum that had to close for four months due to Covid-19.

Ten-year-olds Harry Matthews and twins Rowan and Amber Felgate live close to Sywell Aerodrome, attend the village school and love to watch the planes near their homes.

Air Scout Harry, who would like to be a fighter pilot, read about the Sywell Aviation Museum losing money due to its enforced closure during the pandemic and decided to help his favourite day out destination.

He said: "I love coming to the museum and I wanted to help. It's a really nice place to go and there's so much to see.

"I asked Rowan and Amber to help and they said yes."

The three so-to-be Year Six students at Sywell Primary School discussed their ideas, reporting back to Harry's mum Lea who owns a printing firm in Northampton.

Harry said: "We had a talk and thought we could do a bake sale and sell them but then we thought we could sell note books and mugs."

After some blue-sky thinking Moulton Park-based Addsion Print, owned by Harry's parents, agreed to sponsor branded notebooks and mugs to be sold at the museum alongside their selection of books and model kits.

Mum Lea said: "Every penny from the sales of the notebook priced at £2.99 will go to the museum. The mugs will cost £4.99 and again all proceeds will go to the museum."

Twins Rohan and Amber are equally enthusiastic about flying and although frequent visitors to the aerodrome they had not ventured into the museum until recently.

An impressed Amber said: "There are missiles that are taller than me and I really like the flying helmets and uniforms."

Rohan said:"My favourite exhibit was the models of the planes from the wars.

The three children are pooling their efforts and are to take part in a series of challenges to raise money.

Rohan, who would also like to be an RAF pilot, said: "We are going on a sponsored 50-mile run between us during August. So far we've all run 15 miles so we'll smash that target."

The plane-mad children have agreed to tackle a lockdown challenge with flights of a different kind - they will be walking up 460 flights of stairs - the equivalent height of Snowdon and an incredible 5,980 stepseach.

Harry said: "We originally wanted to raise £240 because that's how much it costs a month to run the museum but we've already raised £560 in two weeks. We would like to raise £1,000 but it would be good to raise as much as possible."

Caroline Felgate, Amber and Rohan's mum said: "This is purely children led. They have come up with all the ideas. We're really proud of them."

Lea added: "We've had so many weeks stuck at home with school work it's great to get out and it's so local for us but it's a great museum even if we didn't live in the village.

"The people who run the museum are overwhlemed that the children wanted to get involved and it's given all the volunteers a boost."

Ben Brown, museum founder, said : "We have been completely humbled by the passion these young people have for local aviation history and for our little museum.

"The museum like many others in the county has been hit hard by coronavirus as we charge no entry fee and rely on donations to survive.We hadn't been able to open this year until the August 1.

"That they chose to support us at this difficult time means the world to our volunteers, it's just amazing. We would like to thank Harry, Rohan and Amber."

To make a donation to Flyer Funders Go Fund Me page click here Sywell Avaiation Museum opens to visitors every weekend during August and September from 10.30am to 4.30pm as well as bank holiday Monday.

For more information please email [email protected], call 07968061708 or visit the museum website or their Facebook pageMessage from the editor: Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

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