THE owner of a Barmouth nursery says she is “disgusted” after callous thieves made off with nearly £2,000 in donations and equipment during a break-in, but “overwhelmed” by a fund-raising effort in the local community.

On Wednesday evening, 21 September, thieves smashed their way in through the Oasis Day Nursery’s back door and then proceeded to ransack the property.

Speaking the morning after the raid, Rev Dawn Robinson, the owner of Oasis, said: “They’ve taken our two iPads, our safe which included all of our fund-raising money as well as the money from our money tin, our staff pot and even the Macmillan charity box. They just ripped the cardboard box open and helped themselves.

“The money stolen totalled well over a £1,000. We had £1,200 in the fund-raising safe alone.

“It’s disgusting, we’re a not-for-profit business and we just manage to survive as it is.

"This is a real blow.

“All the money stolen was going to be reinvested for the children. We were hoping to open up a new outside play area for them and buy new toys, I don’t know what will happen now.

“It’s just really sad, we work so hard and then something like this happens.

“How anyone can do this to a children’s nursery is beyond belief”

The nursery, which has 75 children registered at the moment, is very much at the heart of the Barmouth community which has rushed to support Oasis.

Within hours of the callous break-in, a fund-raising page had been set up to help the education facility, and in total around £2,000 has already been raised by the local community.

Speaking this week, Dawn said she was “overwhelmed” with the levels of support.

Read the full story in this week’s Meirionnydd edition, in shops now, or available online by clicking the digital editions link above