Kilbehenny National School, Co. Limerick, will stage a tractor/vintage run tomorrow (Sunday, October 27) from Kilbehenny village at 1:30p.m to boost the fundraising coffers for the conversion of a grass area to the side of the school into an all-weather grass area.
The grass area is unfit for purpose from October to April/May due to weather conditions.
“We are asking for as many people as possible to support our fundraiser,” said principal, Mark O’Connell, a part-time farmer.
“Kilbehenny NS has doubled the number of its pupils to over 100 this year and as a result, we have very limited yard space.
“An application was put in to the CLÁR programme which provides funding for small-scale infrastructural projects in rural areas, and we were ever so grateful to receive a grant of €50,000 only a fortnight ago.
“Unfortunately, the grant falls short of the overall cost of the astroturf of €120,000, but the €50,000 is an excellent foundation to begin with,” he added.
“To raise more funds, a committee was set up to hold a tractor run. Momentum is building and the community is excited.
“We are a rural school on the foot of the Galtee mountains and we have many dairy farmers, beef farmers and sheep farmers in the locality with a lot of the families and pupils attending Kilbehenny NS,” said Mark.
“Tom O’ Brien and Maurice Walsh, committee members, came up with an excellent idea of holding an auction before the tractor run commences.
“We have asked farmers in the locality to donate a silage bale to be auctioned where all proceeds will be donated to the school.
“The search for silage bales is still ongoing and at the moment we have over 40 bales ready to be delivered come Sunday afternoon,” he said.
The principal added that as well as silage bales, “we will have trailers of hardwood blocked timber, bales of straw, vouchers and much more that will all go for auction and hopefully raise much needed funds for Kilbehenny.
“The auction will start at 1:00p.m and we hope to see many bidders for the different lots of silage bales,” the principal said.
“The pupils of Kilbehenny NS, many of whom are from farming backgrounds, are excited about the event. They went to work to put the call for farmers to donate silage bales,” said Mark.
In a dramatic turn of events, an entertaining sketch was put together where two Kilbehenny NS pupils from sixth class, Robbie O’Brien and Jack Geary, and fourth class pupil, Aimee Luddy, put the call out to farmers for silage bales, displaying their theatrical skills.
“I would like to thank everyone sincerely for all the effort they have put in for our first ever tractor run and we hope it is a great success.
“To everyone who has donated silage bales and vouchers, a sincere thanks to you all too. It is our pupils who will benefit and be rewarded from the proceeds and we will not stop looking for more silage bales until Sunday comes,” said O’Connell.