Scarecrow Festival at Ballinahown
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Michael, Holly, Hannah, Leah and Shauna celebrating Halloween in Ballinahown N.S. last Friday.Image 2 of 7
Eli, Dylan and Adam celebrating Halloween in St Colmcille NS last Friday.Image 3 of 7
Kara, Billy, Nan and Hannah celebrating Halloween in St Colmcille NS last Friday.Image 4 of 7
Maryellen, Linda, Matilda, Amelie and Brooke celebrating Halloween in St Colmcille NS last Friday.Image 5 of 7
Anna, Lorna, Ellianna, Ríona and Leah.Image 6 of 7
Rory, Oscar and Finn enjoying the Scarecrow Festival at St Colmcille NS, Ballinahown.Image 7 of 7
Kayla, Megan and Alana celebrating Halloween.The Scarecrow Festival was back with a bang in Ballinahown last week as the school garden of St Colmcille NS was transformed into a spooktacular sight.
Pupils of the national school, along with their families, were busy over the past few weeks making Halloween-themed scarecrows to display in the school grounds ahead of the midterm break.
As well as building scarecrows, the children also had the opportunity to visit the McGuinness family farm to view pumpkins before they were harvested. Earlier this year each child in the school planted a pumpkin seed and these were then nurtured on the farm before being harvested and sold last week to raise money for the local Astro turf project. A whopping €1,000 was raised from the sale of the pumpkins.
The children had a busy week last week with an appearance on RTÉ2’s News2Day progamme on Thursday before all the families gathered at the school for the Scarecrow Festival on Friday evening. There, they had the opportunity to view all of the spooky creations and enjoy refreshments organised by the parents’ association.
Principal of St Colmcille’s NS, Thomas Keena, said:
“It is great to see the return of the Scarecrow Festival this year and the excitement it has brought to the school. The children have loved coming in and seeing the new scarecrows making appearances every day over the past week or so.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to hold the festival last year but everyone has surpassed themselves this year and we have the largest Scarecrow Festival yet. The festival is run as a fundraiser for the school and we’re very grateful to the parents' association, all the families and wider community for their support. It was fantastic to be able to bring the whole school community together for this outdoor event to celebrate Halloween.”