What a wonderful day it was on Tuesday for the tutors and learners of Letterkenny Youthreach and especially for Rioghnach Mc Fadden and her classmates of 4th class in ScoilColmchille, Newtowncunningham. This was the day that the official opening ofthe new playground playset took place, that which was designed and built by the Letterkenny Youthreach learners under the tutorial of Andy Dowds, woodwork tutor at the centre.
The adventure playset was a prize which was won by Rioghnach for a short story which she had written and entered into a competition organised by the Youthreach centre and the playset was built in accordance with a drawing which she also supplied. Rioghnach’s story was chosen from hundreds of entries from primary schools within the catchment area of Letterkenny Youthreach, from Letterkenny to Newtowncunningham, to Ballybofey, to Milford and all areas in-between.
Acting Co-Ordinator of Letterkenny Youthreach, Gillian Kennedy, stated what a success the wholeproject had been. “Youthreach is a national training and education programme for early school leavers and this year Letterkenny Youthreach is celebrating it’s 25 year anniversary. As part of our on-going celebrations we have been doing a variety of events and projects engaging with the wider community in a way to help raise awareness of all the wonderful and award winning things our Youthreach programme has to offer. This competition came about because we decided to reach out to the multiple primary schools in our catchment area. We were surprised by the sheer volume of entries and even more taken aback by the standard of the writing and the imagination in the art work for some of the drawings. Youthreach learners, who study QQI qualification from level 1 to 4, very much enjoyed working on producing the winning playset and it’s a bonus that all this hard work can be recorded as part of our learners’ level 4 assessment, which is our leaving cert standard equivalent. We are very grateful to the following local businesses that kindly supported this endeavour; Bank Of Ireland, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Kernan’s Diner, Credit Union, Charles Kelly Ltd., McCool Sawmills, Gortlee Tool Hire, LCL Utility Solutions, McMenamin Tyres and KN Networks”
The official opening was conducted by Scoil Colmcille principal James Doherty and Letterkenny Youthreach Acting Co-Ordinator Gillian Kennedy in the presence of Donegal County Mayor Cllr. Ciaran Brogan, Chairman of School Board of Governors Francis Conaghan, Letterkenny Town and District Mayor Cllr. Gerry Mc Monagle, Padraig Mc Laughlin TD, Ann Mc Hugh, Chief Executive Donegal ETB, Crona Gallagher, AEO Donegal ETB, local Cllr. Paul Canning, tutors and learners of Letterkenny Youthreach, teachers and students of Scoil Colmchille and local parents and residents of Newtowncunningham.
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