DANIEL Threlkeld is the most popular boy at Eaglesfield Primary.
For he won a competition to take his whole class to the Royal Highland Show next week.
His design for Skye the Sheep beat 1600 others in the nationwide RHET Flock to the Show competition.
And now Daniel’s farmyard design has been recreated on a sheep statue by artist Tricia Barna, who popped along to the school last week with RHET chairman Alistair Marshall to show Daniel, who is in P7, and classmates the end result.
Meanwhile, Skye has now embarked on a tour of Scotland with Alistair, of Hardgrove Farm, Carrutherstown.
The pair’s final destination will be the Royal Highland Show, which starts next Thursday.
But before then dairy farmer Alistair is cycling across each of the 13 RHET Countryside Initiatives in a bid to raise £10,000 to support the charity to continue to provide free educational activities and experiential learning for young people aged 3-18 years.
He said: “I’m immensely proud to be the chairman of RHET, which each year makes it possible for 70,000 children to visit a working farm or benefit from a classroom activity focused on food and farming. But, like a lot of charities and businesses, the pandemic really hit hard, and this challenge is one way to help raise money to ensure we can continue to get kids into the countryside.
“Volunteers from across RHET’s network will be cycling parts of the challenge with me.”
He started in the Lothians yesterday and the route will take him to
Gorebridge, Innerleithen, Moniaive, Dalmellington, Isle of Bute, Inverclyde, Falkirk, Airdrie, Nairn, Forres, Arbroath, Errol, Glenrothes, before finishing in the capital.
Katrina Barclay, chief executive of the RHET, said: “I would really encourage anyone who can get behind our chairman as he puts rubber to the road, all for a great cause.”
ABOVE . . . Daniel Thelkeld admires his design with artist Tricia Barna and RHET chairman Alistair Marshall
