Report by: Pádraig Brosnan & Jack Butler
The third year class from St Patrick’s Secondary School, Castleisland invited a guest speaker in on Thursday March 5th from the Irish Guide Dogs as part of their Junior Cert action project for C.S.P.E.
The Irish Guide Dogs is a charity based in Model Farm Road in Cork. There they train Guide Dogs for people who need assistance in their everyday lives.
The students were interested in learning more about their work and how they trained the dogs to assist the visually impaired.
The students chose this charity as they were interested in the work of the Irish Guide Dogs and observing the dogs at first hand.
Four members of the organisation visited, consisting of two puppy walkers – who help train the dogs at a young age – as well as two speakers.
From left: Neil Dennehy, Dónal Geaney, Daniel Kelly, Aaron Fleming and Redmond Horan.
They also brought in two Guide Dogs-in-training. The class learned of the hard work and commitment which these volunteers put in on a daily and weekly basis.
Among the interesting facts that the class became aware of were: the cost of training one dog being €40,000 and that 80 percent of the funding which the organisation requires comes from public donations – the remaining 20 percent comes from the government.
The students decided a whole school raffle would be the best method of fundraising along with a quiz for the first year students on March 13th. From these fundraisers the third years raised an impressive €420 for the Irish Guide Dogs.
The raffle prizes were generously sponsored by local businesses in the Castleisland area. These included: Vincent Murphy’s Sportswear and Den Joe’s American Style Take Away who helped the project become such a success.
