Our Activities - AMS Activities | Activities for Children | AMS Cartoon Club

The Adrian Mitchell Society tries to get young people involved in the work of the Donegal Hospice and the Home Care team. The Society also raises funds to help the work of the hospice.

AMS Activities

The Hospice Garden Project

One of the major projects at the moment is the development of the garden of the Hospice in Letterkenny. A lot of work has already been done, with the four national schools in Letterkenny each having their own little plots. Weíve also been helping to create a path around the Hospice garden for the patients, including those in wheelchairs. Coillte have planted trees which will have wind chimes and nesting boxes. It was a particular delight last year to welcome children from Northern Ireland, who joined with the local children to create a special flower bed.

Part of the garden is being developed as an open-air classroom on good days, so that the people in the hospice can enjoy the sounds of children learning and playing outside and perhaps go out and see them. Ballyraine NS is doing the planting there, including butterfly plants. With the butterflies, the plants and all the birds, it will be ideal for nature studies!

Ballyraine NS Hospice Garden Diary

Courses for nurses

The Adrian Mitchell Society is also providing funding for some training courses for the nursing staff attached to the Hospice.

The aim of the Donegal Hospice is to provide the best possible care for the terminally-ill, whether theyíre at home or in the building itself. Itís important that the skills and expertise of the medical and nursing staff are kept up-to-date.

The hospice is fortunate to have a first class team, headed by the consultant in palliative care, Dr Donal Martin.

Activities for children

GETTING CHILDREN INVOLVED

The Adrian Mitchell Society has had an excellent response to its efforts to raise awareness of the Donegal Hospice among young people. We’ve had very successful competitions and activities, all centred on the work of the hospice, including –

• Writing short stories

• Painting pictures

• Playing music

• Short plays

• Making scrap books for the Hospice

• Little concerts

• Growing plants

• Woodwork projects

• Entering AMS competitions

Ballyraine NS Hospice Garden Diary
OUR DAY AT THE HOSPICE

- 21/10/05

On Friday the 21st October we visited the Donegal Hospice. We met with six pupils from schools in Letterkenny, including St. Bernadette's, Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal and Scoil Colmcille, and four pupils from a school in Strabane and four from a school in Derry.

First of all we got red hard hats and gardening gloves. A lady named Marie Ferguson who works for the Braidwater group in Northern Ireland wrote each of our names on our hard hats. When we got our hard hats on a photographer named Conor took photos of us along with the other schools. After that we got to work.

We each got one shrub to plant. We had to place the shrubs in, cover them with soil and water them. We planted them in a corner of the hospice garden. We got highlighters, stress brick, t-shirt and a wallet. When we were finished we went to McDonalds. It was a lovely treat! We really enjoyed the day out at the hospice.

By E.R. and H. D. (6th Class)

Link to the website of Ballyraine National School, Letterkenny

Ballyraine NS Hospice Garden Diary

AMS Cartoon Club

The founder of the Adrian Mitchell Society, Mary Kavanagh Chandler, pictured with Jarla at the launch of the AMS Cartoon Club.

The Adrian Mitchell Society has set up the AMS Cartoon Club as a fun club for children. It operates mainly through the national schools in Donegal.

AMS Cartoon Club members have the chance to enter a cartoon competition every six weeks or so with individual prizes, such as cinema tickets, vouchers and places in Jarla’s cartoon classes. The overall winner also gets a special cartoon of their teacher or principal!
 
The aim is to give the children opportunities to learn how to draw and to develop their creativity. The club will also help the Adrian Mitchell Society to raise money for our work with children in the Donegal Hospice Garden and other projects.

The entry fee is €50 per class. Each class gets signed copies of the two Jarla books, individual membership cards and free entry to the regular AMS Cartoon Club competitions. Classes which join now automatically have membership for the 2006-2007 school year. Our first competition happens straight away – design a logo for the AMS Cartoon Club.

There’s also individual membership for €10, which includes a Jarla cartoon book. Other children in the same family can join for €5 each, and also get a book.  
 
We’re fortunate to have Jarla Duffy, one of the country’s leading cartoonists, working with us on this project. He’s already well-known to many schools through his visits for cartoon classes, and his cartoons feature regularly in both local and national newspapers.

PS   The first ‘Cartoon with Jarla’ book has been such a success that a second one is coming out soon. ‘Holiday Cartoons with Jarla’ is expected to be another sell-out, with proceeds again going to the Adrian Mitchell Society.

For more details on the AMS Cartoon Club, please email or telephone
(074) 91 55892 (from outside Republic, 00353 7491 55892).