ELEVEN St Michael’s Community College, Kilmihil, fifth-year LCVP pupils, guided by their LCVP teacher, Claire Davoren, recently decided to organise a Shave Or Dye event in their school to raise awareness and funds for the Donal Walsh Livelife Foundation. Forty-eight students took part in the Shave Or Dye.
Earlier this month, Elma Walsh, mother of Donal, visited St Michael’s Community College to be presented with a cheque for €1,400. She spoke to the students about the work the foundation does, trying to improve hospice care for teenagers.
The fun started in January, when students brainstormed various ideas and, through a group discussion, decided on the Shave Or Dye fundraiser.
“Jobs were allocated to all members and a time schedule was agreed on. Every week, we checked our progress against our plan and, if someone was finding it difficult to complete their task, as a group, we discussed other options to help them achieve their aim.
“It was a team effort and we all motivated each other to organise the event,” Ms Davoren explained.
They contacted the Garda station to find out the process to apply for a permit for sponsorship cards. The group also researched the Donal Walsh Livelife Foundation online, emailed and Tweeted them.
“They supplied us with an information pack and we decided to invite them to our school for a visit. Our marketing team successfully designed posters to encourage people to volunteer for this activity and also posters to inform students when the event was on. We researched and priced the different types of hair spray available.
“We tested it first and agreed to choose two colours connected with the Donal Walsh Livelife Foundation. We used pink and yellow to highlight cancer awareness and anti-suicide,” the LCVP teacher said.
As part of their awareness campaign, the group displayed various posters around the school, with slogans such as Take Time, A Door Will Open.
Local hairdresser, Ann Galvin agreed to shave the students’ heads.
“We had 48 students from first-year up to Leaving Cert, who got their heads dyed or shaved. There was plenty of laughter in the hall when teachers started dying the students heads. But there were several looks of horror on the students’ faces when they saw the final results in the mirror,” Ms Davoren laughed.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.