Brigid Dundon, Saint Joseph's CBS, with TY students from the school, representatives of the Lidon Group and Pieta House, and Michelle Forde, CBS, presented with a prize for their fundraising efforts for Progress 4 Pieta.

Nenagh students are fundraising winners

Published: Wed 19 Jun 2019, 1:14 PM

Last updated: Wed 19 Jun 2019, 2:18 PM

A presentation was made recently at Junction 14, Mayfield, just off the M7, to the Transition Year students of St Joseph’s CBS, who have done sterling work raising money for Pieta House.

The reward for this was a prize of €2,500, which was sponsored by the Lidon Group, which is the owner of Junction 14 Mayfield, among other businesses. As Ms Michele Forde, teacher and co-ordinator of the event, explained: “St Abraham’s class in TY ran a fundraiser campaign that raised the most money, €2,616.00 over a seven-week period. We ran numerous events to achieve this amount while at the same time bringing awareness to Pieta House and the incredible work that it does.”
Augustin Castravet and Bartek Karpiak put together and delivered an informative and engaging presentation in front of Marie Peelo, Deputy Director of Funding and Advocacy at Pieta House; Gavin Moran, Site Manager at Junction 14, Mayfield and Lauren Harris, Marketing Executive, Lidon Group and organiser of Progress 4 Pieta.

A number of years ago, Nenagh CBS devised a module for the Transition Year programme called Development Education. There are four classes of 19 students which rotate throughout the year. The purpose of the module is to make the students more aware of the work of various charities and groups throughout Ireland which are partially funded or indeed not funded at all. It has proved to be a very popular subject the boys.

Throughout the year we fundraise for a couple of charities which have struck a chord with the boys. This may be because of a guest speaker or because of an incident regarding a student or teacher in our school. In the last couple of years, students and staff have been directly impacted by the loss of a loved one through suicide. As a result, the students chose Pieta House as our end of year chosen charity 2018 and raised €500. In 2019 they were the winners of the Progress 4 Pieta Initiative.

In 2017 we raised €1,716 for Jack 'n' Jill after an extremely powerful speech and presentation in our school by Jonathan Irwin, founder of the charity. We also fundraise for North Tipp Hospice annually and this year we presented them with €1,200.

Another organisation that we have brought awareness to and raised funds for is EMBRACE Farm, who also deliver deliver powerful messages to the students annually through survivors and affected family members own stories of farm accidents.

A big part of this module is coming up with innovative and productive ideas for raising money. TY students now climb the Devil’s Bit at the end of every year and this brings in a lot of money through sponsorship. Afterwards the students sit down and eat together at a BBQ in The Thatched Cottage, Ballycommon, and this is proving to be an excellent fundraiser whilst also creating or cementing friendships through a challenging shared experience.

We hold many other different events throughout the year including non-uniform days, bake sales, whole-school themed fancy dress (this year students and staff dressed in Halloweeen costumes with prizes going to the most voted best dressed; last year it was Super Heroes!), guess the amount of bars in the box, guess the combined weight of the Easter eggs in the box, etc.

This year past pupil Barry Coffey, who is now playing with Celtic Youths, got us a Celtic jersey signed by the first team which we raffled, and the Fitness Factory in Nenagh sponsored prizes for one of our most popular fundraising activities to date, our Hanging Tuff Challenge at lunchtime. This drew great crowds and enthusiasm and contributed greatly to our overall school community spirit.

Overall this is proving to be an excellent eye opener to the students and they are very enthusiastic when it comes to fundraising. It is our hope that through actively being involved with fundraising for charities, our students will leave in the future with an awareness and even a desire to help others less fortunate or bring awareness to organisations that need assistance.

When the CBS boys visited Junction 14 Mayfield, Site Manager Gavin Moran presented them with a €2,500 cheque towards their school donated by Junction 14. A fantastic day was had and we’d like to thank all those that took part and helped raise money for Pieta House.