Creagh College Gorey goes orange for mental health
STUDENTS SPREAD THE MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MESSAGE
CREAGH College Gorey turned orange recently for Cycle Against Suicide’s #SchoolsGoOrange day, which was held as part of the school’s ongoing efforts to raise mental health awareness
Hundreds of schools around the country took part in the event and glowed orange to spread the message that ‘It’s OK not to feel OK; and it’s absolutely OK to ask for help.’
Creagh College teacher Brendan Cullen explained that the aim of #SchoolsGoOrange was to drive mental health awareness and promote help-seeking behaviour in second level schools across all 32 counties.
Creagh College held a number of events throughout the day, including mindfulness through yoga with junior year students. These sessions were conducted by Orla Kenny, leisure club manager in The Ashdown Park Hotel and The Amber Springs Hotel.
More than 700 of the school’s students and teachers took part in an orange themed event on the school’s sports pitch, spelling out the slogan ‘It’s OK not to feel OK’ in large letters, which was then photographed from above by a drone.
Special guests Joe and Catriona Dixon and Mick and Jackie Ryan were present for the release of doves to mark the loss of loved ones.
As part of the build up to the day, the #SchoolsGoOrange national selfie campaign saw well-known Irish faces including Joe Duffy, Nadia Forde, Gerry Adams and Dustin The Turkey to ‘Go Orange’ on social media, helping to highlight the vital work being done in schools to raise mental health awareness.
Participation in #SchoolsGoOrange part-fulfils the requirement for the prestigious award of Cycle Against Suicide Ambassador School, which Creagh College is hoping to receive at the end of this school year.
‘It was terrific to take part in the #SchoolsGoOrange day,’ said Brendan Cullen. ‘It’s great to have our students involved in a movement, where they are the centre of discussing and promoting how our mental health and well-being, just like our physical health, needs to be cared for and nurtured.’
‘It was inspiring to see the hard work our students put in for our Pitch Slogan to spread the message, “It’s OK not to feel OK; and it’s absolutely OK to ask for help in our school”,’ he added.
Cycle Against Suicide interim CEO Colm Hayes said the organisation was delighted with how hundreds of schools took part in #SchoolsGoOrange day.
‘Huge thanks and credit must go to students and teachers who worked so hard to make the vision of #SchoolsGoOrange a reality,’ he stated. ‘ The range of events from flash mobs to sports days via orange themed school lunches showed tremendous creativity and commitment to opening up the conversation around mental health in our schools.’