Elliot lights up church with charity event

Elliot Baines, 12, of Hebden Bridge, is the world’s youngest lighting engineer and travels across the UK designing lighting sets for festivals and events.

And last month he turned his talent to a charitable cause with a show held at St Thomas the Apostle Churh, Heptonstall

He raised a fantastic £209 for the Elland-based hospice and a number of local businesses donated gifts to a raffle.

Elliot joined up with a number of other young people to make the event a success and he thanked everybody for their help and all who supported the event.

He designed special lanyards for those who helped out, to make them feel a part of the event.

The young prodigy’s passion for his hobby began when he was seven-years-old.

He saved up pocket money to buy professionnal lights and by the time he was 10 he had set up his own website.

Now he has travelled as far as London to do professional lighting for shows and festivals, and has captured the attention of several big lighting businesses.

“It’s his passion,” said mum Michelle Greenwood. “It’s amazing to watch him while he’s doing it.

“His little hands are flying all over the place and he’s absolutely in time with the music.”

Elliot said the best thing about his new found fame is that he gets to meet so many different people.

He said: “What’s really amazing about it is meeting people and getting to travel around the country.

“Hopefully young people out there will see that they can get involved with things like this as well.”

And Elliot is destined for even greater things in the future as he has been offered an apprenticeship with a London lighting company, who will take him on when he turns 16.