In the coming weeks and months Tallaght local Mark Finnerty will be training to complete ‘a couch to double century (200km)’ challenge in June. Mark’s daughter Lily attends Scoil Aoife on Citywest Drive and he hopes to raise €4000 to create a magic garden and sensory playground for the children who attend the ASD unit where Lily is one of twelve pupils. Mark commented “My daughter Lily is autistic and she currently attends a mainstream school that has a separate ASD unit that has two classes of six kids each. The kids can be overwhelmed when it comes to large crowds so some cannot visit the main yard on their breaks which has some facilities in it such as basketball, football, games etc. The current playground for the ASD class would benefit from the addition of sensory playground equipment in order to best cater for the specific needs of the children in both classes”.
Mark continued “Both the school and the parents would love to contribute to help to fill this space with a sensory specific playground that the ASD unit can enjoy for years to aid the brilliant work of the teacher and SNA’s. With this in mind I have suggested a big charity drive which includes the parents and school to contact local businesses to try and generate funding which they came back looking for an event to sponsor. This will be of course backed up by friends and family to donate what they can spare to create this playground. So, in order to generate the required funding I have agreed to put myself through hell and do a couch to double century (200km +) on the bike which will take place in June 2021 so this gives me a few months to train to hit the double century”.
Mark concluded “Scoil Aoife CNS have been brilliant in the work they have done with the kids so far so we are now looking to repay them by helping with the raising of funds to create a sensory specific playground so the kids can play outside in a safe environment. The main photo is of the current playground with other photo of the “dream” playground the school is looking to build attached to give an idea of what the aim is”.
All donations will be forwarded to the school in June after the cycle. For more information and to donate see the Go Fund Me page that has been set up https://www.gofundme.com/f/scoil-aoife-magic-garden-sensory-playground-cycle
