A Sensational Spex Day
NCBI’s second Spex Day campaign has now come to a close and we would like to offer a huge thanks to everyone who got involved in this years campaign. Spex Day 2010/2011 has been a great success, with over 13,000 students taking part nationwide, raising over €8,000.
Pupils in 130 schools nationwide learned about sight loss by following NCBI’s “Learning About Sight Loss” education booklet, which provides information and activities on topics such as mobility, eye conditions and Braille.
Each student was also given a pair of cardboard spex to decorate and enter into our national competition to win Faber-Castell art supplies for their class. Congratulations to winners Mathew Jackson, Kiltegan NS, Co. Wicklow; Molly Keady, Sooey NS, Co. Sligo; Ellie Ryan, Scoil Aodan Naofa, Co. Wicklow; Amy Keogh, Grange NS, Co. Carlow; Abdullah Zaidi, Masterson NS, Co. Leitrim; Mark Armstrong and Luke Temple, St. John Bosco Senior Boys School, Co. Dublin; Megan Valentine, Rathfanham Parish NS, Co. Dublin; Noah and Sinead, Park Montessori, Co. Waterford, and Conor McGuinness, St. Brigid’s Special School, Co. Louth.
The level of creativity and effort that went into each entry was amazing, making our task of choosing winners extremely difficult. Well done and thank you to everyone who sent in entries!
This year’s campaign also had a sensory garden theme, with participating schools receiving a sensory garden seed pack and information booklet, developed with the help of Dale Treadwell, environmentalist and ecologist, and kindly sponsored by Bord na Mona. Rathmicheal NS, Co. Dublin was the winning school of the Bord na Mona Sensory Garden competition.
NCBI would like to sincerely thank all our sponsors for their help in making Spex Day a success. Faber-Castell, our main sponsor, have continued to support us by providing packs full of arts and craft supplies for every participating school, and sponsoring the prizes for our spex competition. Bord na Mona supported this year’s campaign by sponsoring the sensory garden packs and prize for the sensory garden competition. Egans Opticians, our Cork sponsors, generously supported and helped promote the campaign in the Cork region and supplied informative bookmarks for participating students. The Daily Mail, our media sponsor, promoted the campaign throughout the months of September and October. Dale Treadwell, of Naturally Wild, was also extremely generous with his time and knowledge in helping us to promote the campaign and develop our sensory garden pack.
Thanks to everyone’s enthusiasm and support Spex Day 2010/2011 has been a great success and we look forward to working with everyone again for the 2011/2012 campaign.
“I really feel my fourth class have gained a far greater understanding of the difficulties associated with sight impairment, but also an appreciation of how they can be overcome.” — Dr. AnnNoelle Bennett, 4th Class Teacher, Farnham NS, Co. Cavan.