Bell Time Magazine Autumn/Winter 2015 | Page 23

BellTIME IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS Make-A-Wish ® Ireland is encouraging Transition Year students to get involved with their ‘Kids for Wish Kids’ Schools Entrepreneurship Awards 2015/2016. Now in its second year, the awards programme was created to help translate the ingenuity, energy and business acumen of young people into magical wishes for brave children who are battling life threating medical conditions. Open to all secondary schools across the country, the competition will run until Monday 15th December, and will be judged by a well-known judging panel of experts; Entrepreneur, Broadcaster and Publisher Norah Casey; Director of Marketing at Peter Mark, Jenny McDermott; Head of Enterprise Development at Bank of Ireland, Gerry Prizeman; and PRO at National Parents Council Post Primary Lynda O’Shea. Last year saw awards given to schools around Ireland for their skills in ‘Creativity and Entrepreneurship’; ‘Marketing and Communications’; ‘Commerciality’; and ‘funds raised’. Students also received a professional reference for their CV from the prestigious judging panel. 44 Susan O’Dwyer, Chief Executive of Make-A-Wish said, “Schools play a very important part in helping us grant wishes. Children who are living with a life-threatening medical condition spend most of their time in hospitals undergoing painful treatments instead of attending school, having fun with their family and friends, or doing their favorite activities. Young people really identify with what it must be like for another kid to be sick and restricted in what they can do.” Susan went on to say “We wanted to use these awards to acknowledge young people’s amazing fundraising efforts on our behalf and, hopefully open up new opportunities for more young people to help us grant more magical wishes.” For students wishing to take part in this year’s event, they can carry out their project from now until December 14th 2015. Check out www.makeawish.ie for further details or email Make-A-Wish Schools Fundraising Officer at [email protected] Make-A-Wish Foundation Make-A-Wish® in Ireland has one simple aim - to grant the wishes of children aged between 3 and 17 years who are battling life threatening medical conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, heart disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and many others. A wish granted is true magic for the child providing respite from their normal routines of hospitals, doctors and treatment. Since its inception in 1992, Make-A-Wish® in Ireland has granted wishes for over 1,700 children and rea