IN the late 1800s a group of Bradford businessmen joined together to form the Bradford Cinderella Club to "reach and afford amusement" to the poor children of the district.

By January 24, 1890 an inaugural meeting had been held and the first treat, of tea and entertainment, planned.

"They must've have thought it was just a short term thing, they must have never thought that there'd still be a need for it 125 years later - especially when Bradford was as wealthy as it was then," said today's chairman Terry Pearson.

But 125 years after that first meeting, the charity is still going strong and the need for it is still there, with about 500 children supported each year.

"Life's moved on in terms of children's expectations, but the underprivileged hasn't, that's frozen in time in a way. There's still kids in Bradford that have never seen outside of the city.

"There's still kids that are suffering neglect and it's not always society's fault. There's some bad people out there that don't treat children right," Mr Pearson said.

In the 1960s, committee members would wander Bradford's estates to find disadvantaged children, take them home to their parents, explain they were from the Cinderella Club and offer to take them to the charity's holiday home, Hest Bank in Morecambe.

That was how Mr Pearson had his first encounter with the club. He and his younger sister and brother enjoyed three trips to the charity's holiday home.

Several bus loads of children would spend two weeks at the coast every summer at the home, which was opened by the charity in the early 1900s.

"A lot of those kids had never been outside of Bradford and to go to the seaside was a big event.

"We didn't have family holidays, in those days that was our holiday," Mr Pearson said.

"They were great times. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have really fond memories of it. We used to go to Woolworths on a Wednesday afternoon on an open-top bus.

"We used to go to the old Gaumont, The Odeon, for the panto and see whoever was on as well."

Hest Bank closed in the late 1970s after it was damaged by a storm and too costly to continue running.

But money raised through its sale was invested wisely into properties and that portfolio now funds the charity.

Nowadays, children are referred through agencies including schools, GP surgeries, Social Services and Youth Groups - organisations which have regular contact with families - and the charity provides money for trips, days out or in some, rare but unsettling cases, clothes for children whose teachers are scrabbling through lost property boxes to clothe them.

The way the charity helps people may have changed, but its ambition, to provide treats for underprivileged children in Bradford, remains the same.

In the last two years it has had a recruitment drive and it's hoped new blood will freshen its approach and secure its longevity.

It is not about making grand gestures, such as spending £5,000 to send one child to Disney World, but about giving children treats such as trips to the cinema or pantomime, or a chocolate egg at Easter.

But the Bradford Cinderella Club will always leave one major legacy - for the entire country. It introduced free school meals in Bradford which was later rolled out nationally, after Margaret McMillan successfully argued to Government that a hot meal should be a child's right, and not provided by charity.

As the charity, which is supported by many Bradford businesses, reaches its 125th anniversary it is not pleading for donations, welcome as they are, but wants to remind people it is still there.

In some ways, Mr Pearson said, it is a victim of its own ethos, which is to help disadvantaged children feel 'normal' rather then the 'poor child' whose trip has been paid for by charity.

"People still say when you mention the Bradford Cinderella Club, more the older ones, 'is that still going?'. It was a Bradford institution," Mr Pearson said.

"If everyone in Bradford hasn't heard of the Bradford Cinderella Club by the end of 2015, we've not failed, but there's what we're hoping for.

"John Atkinson, a committee member, came up with a phrase before Christmas and it's stuck - we put smiles on children's faces. And that sums us up in a way.

"Our old tagline, that we provide treat for underprivileged children, that's what we do, but as a result of that, we put smailes on children's faces and that means something.

"We are a Bradford institution that provides treats for underprivileged children. That's what we're here to do, that's what we want to continue to do, so come and see us."

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