St. Brigid’s students pop up sale

TWELVE STUDENTS TOOK PART

CREATIVE students from St Brigid’s School got a taste for business when they held a pop up shop last week in the Marshes Shopping centre.

The enterprising senior students from St Brigid’s School were delighted with the response to the event.

The twelve students, aged between 17 and 18, spent weeks working on their designs which appealed to eagle eyed shoppers as wonderfully unique Christmas gifts.

Teacher Majella McAteer explained that after excellent feedback from their first ever public sale, the students were ‘really excited to be selling their creations again.’

‘Among the diverse range of creations on sale were scrabble picture frames, herbal wood spoons, utensil holders, bird feeders, handmade penguins, snowmen, nativity sets, decorative notebooks and diaries for the new year,’ said Majella.

The pop up shop was the culmination of a joint project by the Walk Peer initiative and the Dundalk school who have continued to work together to help develop senior student’s Employability and Entrepreneurial skills and maximise their career prospects by getting into work or starting their own businesses.

Eimear Marron, from the Walk Peer initiative and Majella McAteer, Senior Class Teacher both supported the students at the Marshes centre event as they put their business and retail skills to the test!

Eimear explained: ‘At Walk per we believe that everyone who wants to work, have a job and a career can do so, given the right supports.

Our role is to facilitate individuals to fulfil their employment and career aspirations by supporting them to realise their potential, access opportunities and build their own natural supports.’

The national initiative have been working to assist people in a number of ways including through the Walkways Project. Walk have developed and piloted two innovative supported employment programmes ( Walk Peer and Walk Real) aimed at increasing the rate of employment for people with intellectual disabilities.

Following the success of the St. Brigid’s students event, Majella and Eimear added their thanks to Hoey’s Timber Sales Limited, McEvoy’s Department Store, and Creative Spark for their support.