TY students roll up their sleeves and build a shed in aid of Pieta

A GROUP of Transition Year students from a local secondary school are raffling off a garden shed they built from scratch, and all in aid of Pieta.

The students from Firhouse Community College along with a special education teacher, took on the challenging task of building the shed which will be raffled off with all proceeds going to suicide prevention charity, Pieta.

The project was student-led, where all of the measuring, cutting, hammering, and painting was completed almost entirely by the students. With great enthusiasm and hard work, the students have completed the building phase of the project.

Speaking about the project, principal Senan Nolan told The Echo: “I would say this is a very unusual initiative, not many schools do something like this.

“This has been a great initiative for the students to be involved in and to actually build something that they can see as the end product.”

Mr Nolan added: “It reminds us that education means more than just academic – there is a whole range of skills involved in this to plan, create and build the shed and to look after the business side of it.

“Skills such as teamwork and cooperation also come into play. It has been great for the students, and I have no doubt that somebody in the group will end up as an entrepreneur later in life and start their own business.”

The students chose Pieta as the charity to donate for the proceeds of the raffle in light of the pandemic and an increased number of people suffering from mental health issues.

“We encourage everybody to talk and look for help. Especially at this time of the year. Coming up to Christmas it is great to be able to help a charity like Pieta who do fantastic work,” Mr Nolan added.

The launch of the raffle took place at the school on Friday, December 3, and the fundraiser has raised over €1,700 for Pieta so far.

To buy a ticket for the raffle you can go to ‘Transition year charity garden shed build’ on iDonate.ie