KERRY College of Further Education has launched an initiative which will see a variety of unusual and collaborative fundraising events being organised to support local charities, not just for Christmas, but also running through the entire academic year.
The first scheduled event is ‘Santa Claus is Coming to You!’, the brainchild of Pre-Education and Training Student Sarah Tansley.
She came up with the idea of a travelling Santa Grotto after seeing images on facebook of children visiting Santa’s grotto and thought, what if a child could not get to see Santa?
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The Student’s Council took this on board and will visit a limited number of primary schools in costume and ensure infant classes will have fun-filled Christmas experience.
The students explained that the children will be asked for a small donation and all proceeds will go directly to the Soup Kitchen in Tralee.
This organisation was selected as they wanted to support a local charity and help those most in need locally.
The Student Council hope to roll out such a similar initiative over the year at Easter and Hallowe’en also to give all the primary schools in Tralee an opportunity to be involved.
The second event is ‘Carol Singing Georgian Style’, to mark KCFE’s first Christmas in the Denny Street Campus.
Students and staff dressed in Georgian style clothes will take to the Mall in Tralee Town Centre at 12 noon on Wednesday 12th December to perform a melody of carols guided by the music students and staff with input from the Childcare Department. This event is in aid of St Vincent de Paul.
The third event, currently scheduled for January 10, 2019, is a Retro-Games Day, organised by the Software Development and Games Development students and staff.
The event will be held in the Clash Campus and will be a big gaming competition day. This event is a fundraiser for Jigsaw Kerry.
Principal of KCFE, Mary Lucey, welcomed the launch of the ‘KCFE – Kerry College Fundraising Events’ and praised the community spirit demonstrated by her students.
“The students are wonderful ambassadors for the College and have shown such initiative, enthusiasm, determination and ability to collaborate to get these events organised. It is very apt that all the student groups decided to support local charities and organisations and it is a wonderful way of giving back to the local community. We would ask people to support these events in any way they can, no matter how little as it all helps out!”