Children from a Musselburgh nursery have been busy raising funds to support a centre for elderly people in the community.

About 100 youngsters, from the Links Nursery on Balcarres Road, put their best foot forward for a sponsored walk around Musselburgh Racecourse in aid of the Hollies Community Hub, which provides a lunch club for pensioners and public cafe.

They were joined at the recent event by other relatives including grandparents, while family dogs also made an appearance.

The walk lasted about an hour to an hour and a half.

A pyjama day, cake sale and staff sponsored walk have also taken place and, along with the sponsored walk, have raised more than £3,500 for the cash-strapped Hollies, with money still coming in.

A raffle has also been organised by the nursery.

Fears were raised earlier this year that the Hollies, which has provided services for elderly people at its High Street base for 60 years, was at risk of closure due to a funding crisis.

A Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), the facility relies on funding from outside agencies to allow it to provide a service and applications to funders had been unsuccessful.

This led to a local fundraising campaign to save the facility, including the setting up of a GoFundMe page, and local groups rallied round with support.

A lifeline was thrown to the Hollies with £32,000 from the town’s Common Good Fund.

The hub is responsible for maintenance of the building, which is leased from East Lothian Council, and is “old and in need of some expensive repairs”.

The hairdresser’s salon at the Hollies also closed after 30 years’ service as the hub could no longer afford to subsidise the facility.

A welcome cash boost of nearly £30,000 was received in October from the Queensberry House Trust, which supports older people and their carers, as part of its 25th anniversary awards. The money is for the salaries of the Hollies bus staff.

The Garfield Weston Foundation, a family-founded, grant-making trust, also donated £15,000 to the hub.

Amy Black, from Musselburgh, a room senior in Hedgehogs (the baby room) at the Links Nursery, said that she heard that the building was in need of repairs, adding: “As a former carer in the community, I see the huge impact this service has on a lot of people and so I felt I needed to try and do something to help. Therefore I brought this to the nursery, who have decided to support me.”

Liz Shannon, manager at the Hollies, said: “We would like to thank Links Nursery for thinking of the Hollies and raising money for our funds. The staff and children have also sung outside the Hollies – it was lovely.

“We are waiting to set a date for them to come in to sing for our members.”

She paid tribute to the local community for its support, saying it had been “absolutely brilliant”.

She added: “Over the last few months, we received £1,822 from a race night held in the Store Cub run by one of our veterans, Rab Conquer. Musselburgh Old Course Golf Club raised £3,250 for us by holding a raffle and silent auction, and the Ladies Glitterball raised £2,657 recently.

“We are very grateful for the support from the local community and thank them all from the bottom of our hearts.”

She added: “We are very grateful for the grants received from the Musselburgh Common Good Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation and Queensberry House Trust, all of which have helped us enormously. We hope the New Year will see us going forward and continuing to provide this much-needed service to the local community.”