THE three Lochgelly High school 'Polar Girls' are well over half way towards their £15,000 target to fund their exchange project with Greenland, but they have just a month left to hit it.

The Polar Girls Cultural Exchange project is the vision of three of the young girls from the Lochgelly High School Polar Academy team.

On their return from their 2018 Arctic expedition to Greenland, the Polar Girls Exchange Project team, Carla Masterton, Hannah Reid and Lauren Scott, were inspired to explore the development of a pilot youth exchange project between girls from Lochgelly and girls from Tasiilaq, in Greenland.

As such they are regularly in contact with three of the Inuit girls they met whilst on their Arctic expedition and they have jointly drawn up a programme to explore each other’s local, historical and educational culture.

Their latest fundraising plans included a raffle which took place at the Fife Cycle Park, in Glencraig, last Friday. Top prizes included a bottle of the rare, limited edition Polar Explorer whisky, donated by Scottish polar explorer and leader of the LHS trip to the Arctic, Craig Mathieson, which was won by Margaret Boyle, from Lochore.

In addition, a bottle of Speyside Malt Whisky was won by Alex Campbell, from Kelty, and TISO sweatshirts plus many other items were also won.

The raffle raised £940 towards the Polar Academy Exchange Project which brings the total raised to date to almost £8,500.

Carla, Hannah and Lauren said: "Our thanks go to all who supported us as we continue our fundraising efforts, it really was amazing."

Cllr Linda Erskine, chair of Cowdenbeath Area Committee, who has been a strong supporter of the Polar Academy project from day one, said “This was a fantastic result by the girls, their families and friends with generous donations.

"The girls have a target of £14,985 to raise by the end of June and any sponsorship would be most welcome”.

Described as Europe’s toughest youth training programme, each year the Polar Academy identifies ‘invisible’ 14-17 years old secondary school children, crushed by a lack of self-esteem and gives them the chance to redefine their physical and mental limits.

Participants are put through a rigorous ten-month training programme before being immersed in the wilds of Greenland, navigating through some of the world’s remotest terrain for ten days. On their return to Scotland, each pupil is encouraged and supported to share their experiences with their peer groups, speaking to more than 20,000 school children in their region. In just five years, the Bo’ness charity has engaged over 60,000 youths across Scotland and each of the ten LHS pupils involved have said how the experience has changed their lives.

But the trio are looking to keep up the momentum of their fundraising in June and if you would like to back them contact amreid73reid@btinternet.com