GENEROUS youngsters have brought their whole community together and raised hundreds of pounds for Ardgowan Hospice by organising a fantastic fund-raising event.

Amie McMenamin, 9, and Riley Church, 11, recently held a street party at Greenock’s Shankland Grove which brought in £800 for the worthy cause.

The pair had spent the summer doing odd jobs for their neighbours, such as cleaning their cars, and decided they wanted to bring the school holidays to a close in style.

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They teamed up with their other pals from the neighbourhood to collect raffle prizes and other donations for the event, and even had uniforms made for them to wear when they were washing cars.

Residents from across Greenock and Port Glasgow came along to enjoy the fun day, which proved to be a huge success.

(Image: George Munro)

Amie’s mum Karen Dillon said she was proud of all the children for their efforts.

She added: “It’s a credit to them, being that age and having so much community spirit.

“Amie’s only nine and Riley’s 11, and they brought half the Gibby together.

“It started just this street, and it ended up with people from all over coming.

“At the start of the summer I broke my ankle and Amie and Riley offered to clean my car.

“I gave them a few quid for that, and then they started going round the street and offering to clean cars and do wee odd jobs.

“Then they decided they wanted to have a wee party at the end of the street for the kids.

“They realised they were making a bit more money, so they decided to up the ante and started raising money for charity as well.

“They started doing football cards and collecting raffle prizes from the neighbours. Everyone started joining in after that, and it grew arms and legs.

“Something that started out as a wee fun street party snowballed into buying a gazebo and other things. They even had uniforms made.

“They held the fundraiser, made up their own invitations, and put them through the doors of all the neighbours.”

Riley told the Tele he was pleased that the street party had been a success.

He added: “Mostly we’ve been washing cars. We’ve been going round houses and we put up a big gazebo and threw a party.

“It was quite a lot of work to do, but it was all worth it.

“I had an uncle, Gordon, who passed away from cancer a couple of years ago at Ardgowan Hospice, so when we decided to pick a charity we chose that one.

“I’m really proud of how we did.”