YOUNGSTERS and staff at a children's home in Menston are fundraising for two different organisations by helping to build bird tables and feeders which will be put on sale.

The project is being run by the boys and girls at Meadowlea children's home, Menston, with the help of senior member of staff, Andrew Musgrave.

In a bid to get the fundraising scheme off to a flying start Mr Musgrave contacted the branch of DIY store Wickes in Shipley, which agreed to give four pallets of wood and more than £100 of hand tools.

Mr Musgrave said the children, who range in age from five to ten-years-old, and cannot be named, were so impressed by the boost to their scheme, their reactions ranged from "awesome" and "brilliant" to "very kind".

Money raised from the project will go towards Menston in Bloom, which the children's home has been involved with for the past five years, and an orphanage in Madagascar they have links with.

He told the Telegraph & Argus: "I am one of the senior members of staff and set up a work shed for fixing the kids' bikes, which they like to help with. There was some old wood in the shed and we used it to build a ramp one weekend.

"The interest from the kids developed from that and we recently built a garden bench from recycled fence posts. One of the girls asked if we could build some bird tables for our garden and to sell to raise money for Menston in Bloom and the orphanage. As I was out of wood, I asked the staff at the new Wickes store if they could help out with any damaged wood and they got back to me within the week.

"We are going to build different feeders for various animals and bird tables to raise money for both projects."

"It shows people how the children, business and a community can all pull together to improve our village for everyone," he added.

Quentin Mackenzie, of Menston in Bloom, praised the project, saying that the children were involved in looking after three of the In Bloom group's planters, and did a very good job.

"Andrew is very keen on DIY and the kids are keen to get involved - it's good for them all," he said.

Ben Barraclough, assistant store manager at Wickes in Shipley, said: "At Wickes, we love being involved in local community projects and we're delighted to support the Meadowlea children's home. It’s great that we were able to help with their DIY project and we’re excited to see the results.”