A CHILDREN'S charity is benefiting from the spirit of giving over the Christmas season, thanks to the generosity of a hard-working mechanic.

Eric Lightbourn has donated $3,000 to the Sunshine League Children's Home, which provides care for ten displaced youngsters at its King Street residential facility.Mr. Lightbourn, of Upland Lane, Warwick, made the pledge on Christmas Eve after reading about the history and work of the charity in the book Rays of Hope.

"I just think this charity has done absolutely wonderful work and certainly we need people that are going to stand behind them," Mr. Lightbourn, who works at Elbow Beach hotel's cycle livery centre, said.

"There's so much that should be done on this island and all we seem to do is get caught up in a lot of foolishness. It's something that I wanted to do and I feel that I'm going to do it again, among other things.

"I mentioned to the people who handle my money that I basically just wanted to give it in a quiet way ¿ I wasn't even looking for any self-publicity. You can imagine that it's definitely a charity that I do feel is most worthy of this, and I feel that I'll certainly give again to them, as well as to other people ¿ I think Bermuda's been an absolutely wonderful country to me and I don't see why we can't do that."

Although the charity receives a $200,000 annual grant from Government, it needs an additional $500,000 each year to provide around-the-clock care for ten orphans and displaced youngsters.

Yesterday, SLCH executive director Denise Carey told the Mid-Ocean News: "We hear so often of the large corporations and their donations but so little of the everyday, hard-working man and how they too give back. These stories are so important for their children and peers to hear and learn from.

"We are very much dependent on donations from the community. This year we were able to have a fabulous Christmas ¿ the whole community has been extremely supportive."

Although Mr. Lightbourn wanted his donation to be low-profile, his act of kindness was trumpeted by David Goodwin, of Globe Trust Company Ltd., which oversaw the donation.

"Mr. Lightbourn is a humble and low-profile man who simply wants to do the right thing," Mr. Goodwin said. "He is sacrificing a lot to set an example. This kind of care for the Sunshine League needs to go down in history.

"He comes from a long line of people who want to give back to the community but do not have the means of most, yet see the good that is being done by great organisations like the Sunshine League, and want to keep it going.

"He has himself come up the hard road a bit and has done quite a bit of sacrificing in his history.

"He's seen a lot of young kids come up through the system and maybe fall through the cracks.

"He knows that the Sunshine League has been doing quite a good job taking kids into their care and producing pretty good young people, so he likes the programme.

"He would love to do more himself in his apprenticeship programme, trying with varied success to interest young people in pursuing mechanics.

"The trust is a structure that he believes in, and every once in a while he can say, 'I've accumulated a bit and want to pass it on'.

"He just wants this Christmas time to do the right thing. He wanted to do it before Christmas.

"I think he is a very humble man, but for him to talk about wanting to do the right thing and give a gift, I think the community really needs to know there are people like that.

"He'd probably want to keep it low profile, but I say 'no ¿ you're a damn decent fellow and need to get on your soapbox more often'. He talks a great deal of sense. He's a very sound fellow.

"We found a number that was going to work, but he would like to give more, and I think if he actually talked about it publicly it could encourage more people to do that."