Fundraisers are on a charge as they continue to help organisations that come to the aid of endangered rhinoceros.

Staff and students at Harrison College, Doncaster, have raised hundreds of pounds for the Wildlife Foundation with the help of the school mascot Ronny the Rhino.

Harrison College is a specialist business, enterprise and employability education provider for post-16 students with autism and special educational needs. It differs from a traditional sixth form or further education colleges as it is based in a professional environment on a business park, where young people are prepared for adult life, encompassing work experience, employability, social and life skills – and it has a rhino as its emblem.

The college partnered with Yorkshire Wildlife Park and the Wildlife Foundation earlier this year with staff and students recently attending Doncaster Racecourse Family Fun Day to raise awareness and funds for the cause.

With the help of Ronny they collected £250 through activities and selling products designed by the students. The college is also running rhino workshops at primary schools across Doncaster this academic year to spread word of the animal’s plight.

Staff and students were inspired to adopt the endangered species as a cause after the birth of a rare Eastern black rhino, called Rocco, at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, in January.

His birth sparked awareness and the park’s Wildlife Foundation launched an appeal in his honour to provide vital funding to support another young rhino calf called Bella and help others at the Ol Jogi Conservancy in Kenya.

The conservancy operates across 58,000 acres providing a safe habitat for indigenous and critically endangered species. It is home to a healthy population of 100 rhinos and runs an influential breeding programme as the species continues to face poaching threats, which devastated its numbers from 70,000 in the wild in the 1970s.

Harrison College’s principal and chief executive Gemma Peebles said: “Staff and students feel passionately about the work of the foundation and are determined to do their utmost to help one of the world’s most endangered species.

“They can relate wholeheartedly to the struggles of the rhino as in their lives they have to show strength and resilience to achieve their goals. The rhinos’ plight resonates with them and they are very keen to do what they can to help.”

Working with Save the Rhino, the Wildlife Foundation has previously supported several projects for rhino conservation at Ol Jogi providing cameras to deter poachers and upgrading radios for park rangers at the conservancy.