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Christmas Shoebox Appeal in the Royal!

Christmas came early to the Royal School Cavan last year anything like it before! And if a local leader requests it, as
as the Transition Year pupils coordinated a great e ort in an optional extra, Team Hope Ireland also give a Christmas
support of the Christmas Shoebox appeal for Team Hope. card – explaining where their box came from, about Ireland Innocent Smoothies
In October Miss Poyntz and Mr Robertson alerted the and the signi cance of the Christmas message.
Transition Year students to the charity and the concept Over the last thirteen years, Team Hope Ireland have sent
behind the appeal, and by the closing date in mid-November an Irish Christmas shoebox gift to more than 2,600,000 “Big Knit”
the students has collected over 50 shoeboxes wrapped children in twenty one countries. This is a really wonderful
in Christmas paper and lled with treats to be sent o to charity and well done to all the pupils of the Royal School
children to make them happy at Christmas. During the month of November, our 5th year R.E. class decided to take part in
who have supported it so generously. the innocent smoothies “Big Knit”, to raise money for Age Action Ireland.
For a lot of these children life is bleak,
with little to look forward to – just We had to knit as many beanies as we could, to t on the top of each innocent
smoothie bottle. And for every smoothie sold with a beany a donation was
hoping to have some food on the table given to Age Action Ireland.
today. Hoping they’ll be safe tonight,
and alive tomorrow. And Christmas is just We were supplied with knitting needles, wool of many di erent colours, and a
another ordinary day - nothing special, beginner pattern to start the beanies o .
no Christmas tree, no presents. But these We spent many of our R.E. classes, knitting the innocent smoothie beanies.
shoeboxes will bring a little hope, a lot Some people had previous experience knitting, but for many people they were
of laughter and smiles and a practical complete beginners and had to learn from scratch! Ms.Bradshaw came into our
expression of God’s love at Christmas R.E. classes to help beginners and anybody who needed help.
time, for children who have very little. With a lot of hard work, we nished the innocent smoothie beanies! The whole
No, a shoebox won’t change everything, class got involved and the beanies turned out great! It was a really good
but it will do far more than you could project and we were happy to take part in a good cause and raise money for
Age Action Ireland.
ever imagine, by bringing Christmas to
children who have never experienced By Emily McKeon

Heather Humphries visits Royal School Cavan.

On Tuesday the 8th of January 2013 the schoolroom was of questions from the pupils on such topics as Ireland’s
buzzing with excitement in anticipation of Ms. Humphries economic recovery, her views on social welfare and we also
arrival. Heather Humphries is one of the ve T.D’s for the gained an insight into Ms. Humphries hobbies. We learned
Cavan-Monaghan electoral constituency and is a Fine Gael that she has a great interest in playing the piano and organ
T.D. Second and Third year pupils were learning about and nds this a great way to relieve stress after a very busy
the work of a T.D. and Mr. Ames thought it would be very week. All the students thoroughly enjoyed the speech and
bene cial if a T.D. visited the school to give a comprehensive would like to thank Ms. Humphries for taking the time to
insight into the varied work of a T.D. visit the school. We would also like to thank Mr. Ames for
putting time and e ort into organising Ms. Humphries visit
Ms. Humphries began by talking about how she rst became
interested in politics and went on to describe a typical days and I would undoubtedly say that Ms. Humphries talk would
work in the Dáil and the day to day running of clinics in the inspire any young person to become involved in politics.
Cavan-Monaghan region. After this she answered a plethora By Daniel Mc Dowell.

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