On Monday 28th April St. Mary’s College will host the first stop of the nationwide campaign – ‘Cycle Against Suicide’. This is a positive well-being campaign which promotes healthy living and positive lifestyle choices. The cycle will circumnavigate the country over a two week period and it is expected that over 7,000 people will participate this year. It is not a fundraising exercise – but rather a mission which seeks to promote support seeking behaviour, community involvement and a spirit of hope and optimism – particularly in our younger generation.
We are delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this venture and the students at St. Mary’s have been actively involved in many ways in the promotion of positivity through our own campaign, ‘Reach for Resilience’. This year, our focus has been very much on wellbeing and we have organised classes in “mindfulness” and a variety of well-being talks for our students, staff and parents.
Hosting the Cycle stop on the 28th April will be an exciting and challenging task – we are expecting over 800 cyclists for lunch (including two of our teachers and a number of our students who are participating in the first leg of the cycle). Our girls will be there to welcome, entertain and look after them for a period of approximately two hours. After a presentation by Jim Breen, founder of ‘Cycle Against Suicide’, the cyclists will set out on the second stage of the day which will bring them to Carlow town and some of our own students will accompany them for a short distance.
Finally, this is a very big undertaking and a lot of hard work has gone into the organisation of the event. I would like to thank the local businesses and organisations who have been extremely generous in their support of the day and we are all looking forward to welcoming the campaign to Naas.
I would also like to thank Ms. Doherty (Link Teacher) and her team of teachers, administrative staff and students in promoting the ‘Cycle Against Suicide’ event in St. Mary’s College on 28th April.
Rita McCabe,
Principal.