Southern welcomes local meerkat trail to Moulsecoomb station

Staff at Moulsecoomb station have held a meerkat tea party to raise money for local children’s charity Embrace.

Southern staff and the Sussex Community Rail Partnership ran the event on Saturday as part of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Meerkat Discovery Trail, a children’s adventure trek across Moulsecoomb that is running until 2 June.

It was a busy day at the station, with local children meeting Piers the Meerkat, as they searched for pictures of seven meerkats hidden along the route.

The station raised £180 for Embrace, which supports local children with special needs and disabilities, by selling homemade cakes and refreshments to passengers at the station.

Katherine Cox, Southern's Corporate Social Responsibility manager, said: “It was a fantastic fun day at Moulsecoomb. The meerkats have all been spotted and thanks to the Sussex Community Rail Partnership, the team at Embrace will benefit from the sale of cakes and refreshments at the station. Thank you to the team here for organising such a lovely event.”

Catherine Simmons, education officer for the Sussex Community Rail Partnership and line officer for the stretch from Seaford to Brighton, said: “We are so pleased to support this event. The meerkat trail is a great initiative to get children exploring their local area. Combining this with fantastic support from station staff to create a fundraising tea party is a great idea. 

"Like Embrace, Sussex Community Rail Partnership also works hard to improve life skills in young people, in our case through independent train travel training across the county.”

For more information on the meerkat trail, visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/meerkat-trail

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