A school assembly at St. Safan’s National School was full of surprises when a star guest arrived to present a massive €10,000 cheque for a new kitchen!
TV personality and entrepreneur, Aoibhín Garrihy, arrived at the Castlefinn school to surprise staff and pupils after they won the Gala Gifts for Schools competition.
A ‘Gala’ Gift of €10,000 for St. Safan’s National School – Paul Harkin, Harkins, Gala Ballybofey, Tony Cluskey, Marketing and Ambient Trading Manager at Gala Retail, Aoibhín Garrihy, Tracy McBride, Principal, David Mayne, Area Manager Gala with the grand prize of €10,00 presented to the school yesterday. Photo Clive Wasson
St. Safan’s N.S. was named as the winner of the ‘Best Health & Wellness Project’ category in the competition, following the school submitting a 60 second video on how they would spend a ‘Gala Gift’. The video focused on the school’s dream of creating a school kitchen where its pupils can learn about nutritional health and develop practical cooking skills that will help them to prepare healthy and wholesome meals for themselves and their families.
Aoibhín Garrihy was joined by representatives from Gala Retail at the recent presentation celebrations at St. Safan’s.
Known for community-focused convenience retailing, Gala Retail has donated €30,000 to Primary Schools in the 2019 Gala Gifts for Schools initiative, which follows last year’s competition in which a further €20,000 was gifted to three primary schools, marking the Group’s 20th birthday.
Tony Cluskey, Marketing and Ambient Trading Manager at Gala Retail adds: “The creativity and innovation shown in the videos that we received from Primary Schools across Ireland was outstanding. It was extremely hard to judge the competition based on the calibre of entries, however the video from St. Safan’s really stood out thanks to its story, the clear message of how a Gala cash gift could really benefit the school, and of course, its pupils being the stars of the show in the video!
“We look forward to following the progress and development of the school’s new kitchen and most importantly, how it’s benefitting the pupils’ education on the role of food and nutrition as part of overall health and wellness.”
