When Katie Trimingham overheard her mother talking about an appeal to buy beds for needy Bermudian children she decided to do something about it.

Two days after hearing her mother Wendy, the operations manager at Trimingham Bros., discuss the raffle at the store to raise money for 32 beds, Katie announced that she wanted to sell tickets at her school, Saltus Junior.

When her mother said the $20 ticket cost would be too expensive for students, Katie was undeterred. She and her friends resolved to make their own raffle tickets.

Katie, Rebecca Gaglio, Kylisha Julio and Anna Clark also baked their own cookies. In no time, they had raised the $250 needed to buy a bed.

Last night, the girls presented the money to Sheelagh Cooper, chairperson of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, whose organisation has been chosen as recipients of the Trimingham's Christmas Extravaganza appeal.

The store picked the Coalition after Mrs. Cooper informed them that due to chronic overcrowding in some parts of the Island, 32 children were forced to share a bed with their parents or brothers and sisters.

Carolyn Conway, the girls' teacher at Primary Seven, said: "It's wonderful that they've done this. All the girls are aged 11. They realise this is happening to other children their own age.'' Mrs. Trimingham said: "What they've done is lovely, and it is in the spirit of giving. Being children, I am sure they can appreciate for themselves what it must be like not to have their own bed.'' The Trimingham's appeal has raised more than enough money for the 32 beds, and all extra cash will go to the Coalition.