A group of students from the TY enterprise class at Thomond Community College in Limerick City have been named Limerick Person of the Month. Thomond Community College is one of four Limerick City schools under the patronage of Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board. The ‘Limerick Person of the Year’ awards are sponsored by the Limerick Leader, media agency Southern, and the Clayton Hotel, and they were set up to honour the achievements and success of local people both at home and abroad.
The students were chosen as this month’s winners thanks to their entrepreneurial and philanthropic approach to their entry for the Limerick Student Enterprise Awards. The competition is run by the Local Enterprise Office Limerick and is open to all 2nd level students in Limerick schools, inviting them to form a ‘mini-company’ selling and promoting products whilst focusing on idea generation, design, marketing, finance and business plans.
For their entry, the Thomond Community College students recognised the merits of developing their own school masks. Once they had established the idea for their mini-company, they set about doing market research on what different mask types would appeal to students, featuring school crests and colours and they used their own software to design their prototypes. Thanks to their innovative themes and designs, the masks proved very popular and sold well, so much so that the students had to order more to keep up with demand.
With the mini-company yielding a good profit, instead of splitting the money between themselves, the students decided they wanted to give something back to their local community. One of the students suggested making a donation to St Camillus’ Hospital, so they contacted the centre to see what the residents might need. It turned out the hospital had recently purchased some outdoor tables to help make visiting outside easier due to COVID restrictions. However, they had no parasols so the students pledged to purchase these and also bought a few gazebos too. The students presented their donation to the residents who said they were delighted with the thoughtful gesture.
Speaking about the students, Norma O’Brien, Principal of Thomond Community College, who is moving to Limerick Education Centre as Director this September, said: “I am so proud of the TY group who worked tirelessly all year and showed great community spirit with their wonderful donation to the residents at St Camillus.”
Donn O’Sullivan, Editor with the Limerick Leader, also spoke about the student’s award: “This was a story which jumped off the page to us in the Limerick Leader team. To run a successful business in school is one thing, to think about others when looking to spend the profits is another. These young business leaders are an inspiration to us all. In the times we live in, it was fantastic to see these young people be so aware of others in their community and already, at this young age, they are changing lives. They are a credit to themselves, their families and to their school.”
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