Space To Play

Space to Play Campaign

In 2016 we launched our ‘Space to Play Campaign’. We started this initiative as the current school hall we have in St John’s is not fit for purpose and limits our work in the school. We aim to provide the children of St. John’s with the facilities they deserve to enjoy the many activities they enjoy by building a Space to Play. We want to have a space big enough so that our whole school community can gather for assemblies, special occasions and Christmas concerts. We are currently working under the leadership of a fundraising committee and we would like to thank them for all their ideas, hard work and support.

Some of our fundraising initiatives over the past year:

• The Parent’s Association have added to the fund at the end of each year with an amount from their fundraising and we thank them for this and for their constant support of the school.
• Local man Jimmy Gannon jumped for John’s from a plane and this raised an amazing €440.
• Coral Leisure Club, Brook House Darts Club and Arklow Credit Union all supported us with generous donations.
• The Arklow fire brigade washed cars in Tesco car park to raise a fabulous €2300. This day showed the whole community coming out together and was a fun and happy day raising money for our Space to Play.

• On the 23rd June 2019 we held our first ever Walk 4 Johns. We had balloons, a free prize draw, guess the jelly bean jar and guess the Lego activity with fantastic prizes to be won and free entry to both. We had food and drinks back at the school after the walk. Seamus Long was the DJ for the day and he provided much fun and laughter. We had entertainment for the children- face painting, outside obstacle courses, MAD drama and a dance off with the DJ. It was a fantastic day and the buzz in the school could be heard all around Arklow. We will be holding another walk as soon as it is safe to do so and we hope you will join us.

• On the 28th June 2019 we held our amazing raffle with prizes very generously donated by local businesses, staff and parents. We are very grateful to all who donated prizes and hope that everyone who won enjoyed their prize. We will run another raffle as soon as we can so keep an eye on our Facebook page for details.
• We had a draw for a Valentine’s Day hamper with lovely prizes to be won.
• We raffled tickets for a David Grey concert in the school and held our raffle on the 12th March. These were generously donated to the campaign by a staff member of St John’s.
• With the Student Council we were planning to have a school disco called “Space to Dance” this year where we would have a DJ, activities and a tuck shop all organised and run by the student council. Plans are on hold due to the current situation but we will come back to this plan in the future.

We could not have raised the money we have so far without the continued support of the staff, parents, children, local businesses and others who donated prizes to help our campaign. Our target is €100000 so we still have some fundraising to come. You can follow us on our Facebook Page “St John’s SNS, Arklow”.