OLYMPIAN AND MILFORD native, Brendan Boyce was guest of honour at the recent Junior Achievement Ireland (JAI) ‘Working it Out’ day.
The event was run by JAI, a voluntary-run organisation supported by local businesses, which aims to encourage students to stay in school and education.
Organised in conjunction with Marine Harvest, the event invited seven schools from the Fanad peninsula to take part in the ‘Working it Out’ day in the Rossnakill Community Centre, which combined the world of sport and mathematics.
Marine Harvest is Ireland’s largest producer of farmed Atlantic Salmon and the business is supporting Brendan Boyce on his road to Rio.
Key Account Manager, Annette Rodgers, said the children were very excited to meet an Olympic athlete.
“We were delighted that Brendan could attend the JAI awards,” she said.
“The students really enjoyed learning more about his sport, race-walking, and the Olympic Games in general. They took part in a Q&A with Brendan and he gave them a quick demonstration of how to race-walk.
“Each school presented Brendan with good luck messages and cards, and who knows, his visit may well have inspired the next generation of Olympic athletes from Donegal. On behalf of the whole team at Marine Harvest, we want to wish him every success in Rio this summer.”
Thanking Junior Achievement Ireland and Marine Harvest for the invitation, Brendan Boyce said: “I was delighted to be able to attend the JAI event and it was great to see so many students getting active, while also learning about mathematics.
“Education is equally as important as getting active and this event is a clever way to mix the two disciplines. A sincere thanks to all of the schools and students who made the wonderful good luck messages and cards – I’ll proudly display them in Rio this summer.”
Participating in the “Working it Out” programme were; St. Columba’s National School Ballyheerin, St. Davaddogs National School, Tamney, Scoil Cholmcille National School, Kerrykeel, Croaghross National School, Portsalon, St. Patrick’s National School, Doaghbeg, Drumfad National School and Scoil Mhuire National School, Caiseal.
Patricia Friel, Programme Coordinator at Junior Achievement Ireland spoke about the positive benefits of the JAI and ‘Working It Out’ programme: “Junior Achievement Ireland works with local businesses and schools to teach young people about the world of work while also encouraging them to remain in education.
“The event is designed to test students’ mind and body, so we mix long division and penalty shootouts with averages and skipping and ratios and basketball.
“It’s about making subjects more fun and enjoyable and we had a great day with the students and staff from the participating schools.
“We’ve been working very closely with the schools in Donegal and we’d like to say a particular thank you to the team at Marine Harvest who invest a lot of time, resources and finance into this initiative.”
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