Young people host car wash to raise money for Ipswich knife crime charity

A group of young people held a car wash fund-raiser to raise awareness and money for a knife crime charity.

The youngsters, for their National Citizen Service (NCS), partnered with the Stop Knife Crime charity and washed cars at the entry of Inspire, in Lindbergh Road, Ipswich.

They managed to raise over £100 on the day, which will then be donated towards funding emergency bleed kits in Suffolk.

The group of teenagers identified preventing knife crime as a cause they cared deeply about.

Hayden Giner, 16, said “In recent times, it’s become more of a concern, so we wanted to do something for our social action project that would raise awareness. As people our age are the most affected by it, we wanted to do some good and show our support.”

“I think also it will bring light to the issue. It’s spoken about in terms of, ‘it’s happening’ but not in terms of ‘what can I do personally to stop it’. I think doing this car wash, wearing the t-shirts and raising money will show we can and should be doing something to stop it, rather than just accept that it’s happening.”

Stop Knife Crime is part of the Be Lucky Anti-Crime Foundation set up by Paul Stansby and Jamie Hart, owners of the Lucky 13 Tattoo Studio, in Ipswich.

They helped to provide leaflets, t-shirts and guidance to the youngsters to help them get the word out even further.

Mr Hart said: “We’re really pleased and grateful for what the guys have done.

“It’s inspirational when young people take it upon themselves to do things to help raise awareness around knife crime. We like to give them every opportunity to help and learn more, so when they come to us and want to do something that’s when we know we’ve made a difference.

“Helping to raise awareness is our top thing.”