Make a difference to make a difference
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My name is Aran Mannion, I am 16 years old and I am currently in my ‘transition year’ (TY) at Clongowes Wood College in Clane, County Kildare, just outside Dublin. Clongowes is a full time Catholic boarding school for boys that I am blessed to be able to attend after being awarded a full six year scholarship. The TY is the year between the Junior and Senior cycles that is designed to help us to mature and develop, using a range of different learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom. With an emphasis on individual responsibility the TY helps us to discover and develop our own unique gifts, abilities and strengths and inspires us all to become “Men for Others”.
As well as our usual formal academic studies, TY involves work experience, social awareness placements, community outreach, foreign language exchanges, an outdoor education trip, cultural experiences and visits by guest speakers.
I am writing to you today to humbly ask you for your support in helping me to raise the money that is essential to make this TY as accessible and effective for me as it will be for the other non-scholarship pupils. Because I am on a full scholarship, my family do not have the funds to pay for the incredible experiences that are on offer so we need to be creative in thinking of as many ways as possible to raise the necessary funds.
The two incredible opportunities that are on offer this TY;
The first potentially life changing experience that I hope to be able to benefit from, with your help, is a one week visit to India to work with the street children of Calcutta. In March 2019 I have the chance to travel to Calcutta to carry out volunteer work in some of the capital’s schools and orphanages as well as visiting the dumps where most of the children make their totally inadequate living from selling scrap and recyclable materials.
To make this trip possible I have to publicly raise €2,400 for the Hope Foundation charity. The Hope Foundation is dedicated to promoting the protection of street and slum children in Calcutta and the most underprivileged in India. The €2400 will go directly to the Hope Foundation and to the schools and orphanages that we will be working in. In addition to this I need to privately fundraise €1,200 to cover the costs of my flights, accommodation, food, travel visas and vaccines. There are only approximately 12 or 13 students from my year who have been given the opportunity to take part in this amazing journey.
The second opportunity is the possibility of taking part in the Camino de Santiago or ‘Camino Pilgrimage’ in Northern Spain. The pilgrimage to Santiago has never ceased from the time of the discovery of St. James's remains in 812 AD. Alongside around thirty other students on TY I will undertake the last stretch of this pilgrimage, walking a minimum of 30Km per day for one week until we reach our destination of the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The cost of the Camino trip all together comes to about €1100
We are taught that this experience deepens and strengthens a person’s relationship with God and self and I would love to go because I feel that having a good relationship with God is very important, especially during the transition from being a boy to becoming a good, strong and honorable man. This trip costs just under €1200 which we have to fully self fund and which I will be working very hard to raise the money for over the coming months. Also, as part of my TY experience I will be taking the opportunity to complete one weeks work experience with the Peter McVerry Trust.For this I will be doing voluntary work with the homeless young people of Dublin. This work is vitally important because it raises awareness of the current housing and homelessness crisis that Ireland is facing as well as working directly with some of the young people who are desperately struggling as a result.
Not only will this be a valuable experience in supporting young homeless people to feel visible, heard and valued in today’s busy, impersonal and sometimes uncaring society. It will also be of great value to me personally, showing me all that I have to be grateful for and teaching me that none of what we have can ever be taken for granted.
I feel that I have a very genuine calling to be actively involved in all of these wonderful opportunities and to put myself in a position where I can hopefully make a real difference, no matter how small, in other people’s lives who are less fortunate than I am. I also feel that each exploit will have a huge impact on my own growth and development as a young man both emotionally and spiritually, in preparation for my senior years at Clongowes and in my personal life.
Because of these undeniable facts I will be working my absolute hardest to raise as much money as possible for the Hope Foundation charity and the Camino fund and would be forever grateful for your support. Together we can genuinely be involved in making a difference and in improving the futures of some of the poorest and most marginalised people in society today.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for considering my request. If you need any more information before making your decision please do not hesitate to contact me using any of the details at the start of this letter. If you require, I can send you a copy of the Hope Foundation letter that gives me authorisation to fundraise for them and for the Calcutta trip. Also, if you need any additional confirmation, please contact me as soon as possible so that I can give you the details of the relevant person at both Clongowes Wood College and the Hope Foundation. God bless.
Yours faithfully
A Mannion
As I am not 18 years of age I have given my mother the role of looking after withdrawals
As well as our usual formal academic studies, TY involves work experience, social awareness placements, community outreach, foreign language exchanges, an outdoor education trip, cultural experiences and visits by guest speakers.
I am writing to you today to humbly ask you for your support in helping me to raise the money that is essential to make this TY as accessible and effective for me as it will be for the other non-scholarship pupils. Because I am on a full scholarship, my family do not have the funds to pay for the incredible experiences that are on offer so we need to be creative in thinking of as many ways as possible to raise the necessary funds.
The two incredible opportunities that are on offer this TY;
The first potentially life changing experience that I hope to be able to benefit from, with your help, is a one week visit to India to work with the street children of Calcutta. In March 2019 I have the chance to travel to Calcutta to carry out volunteer work in some of the capital’s schools and orphanages as well as visiting the dumps where most of the children make their totally inadequate living from selling scrap and recyclable materials.
To make this trip possible I have to publicly raise €2,400 for the Hope Foundation charity. The Hope Foundation is dedicated to promoting the protection of street and slum children in Calcutta and the most underprivileged in India. The €2400 will go directly to the Hope Foundation and to the schools and orphanages that we will be working in. In addition to this I need to privately fundraise €1,200 to cover the costs of my flights, accommodation, food, travel visas and vaccines. There are only approximately 12 or 13 students from my year who have been given the opportunity to take part in this amazing journey.
The second opportunity is the possibility of taking part in the Camino de Santiago or ‘Camino Pilgrimage’ in Northern Spain. The pilgrimage to Santiago has never ceased from the time of the discovery of St. James's remains in 812 AD. Alongside around thirty other students on TY I will undertake the last stretch of this pilgrimage, walking a minimum of 30Km per day for one week until we reach our destination of the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The cost of the Camino trip all together comes to about €1100
We are taught that this experience deepens and strengthens a person’s relationship with God and self and I would love to go because I feel that having a good relationship with God is very important, especially during the transition from being a boy to becoming a good, strong and honorable man. This trip costs just under €1200 which we have to fully self fund and which I will be working very hard to raise the money for over the coming months. Also, as part of my TY experience I will be taking the opportunity to complete one weeks work experience with the Peter McVerry Trust.For this I will be doing voluntary work with the homeless young people of Dublin. This work is vitally important because it raises awareness of the current housing and homelessness crisis that Ireland is facing as well as working directly with some of the young people who are desperately struggling as a result.
Not only will this be a valuable experience in supporting young homeless people to feel visible, heard and valued in today’s busy, impersonal and sometimes uncaring society. It will also be of great value to me personally, showing me all that I have to be grateful for and teaching me that none of what we have can ever be taken for granted.
I feel that I have a very genuine calling to be actively involved in all of these wonderful opportunities and to put myself in a position where I can hopefully make a real difference, no matter how small, in other people’s lives who are less fortunate than I am. I also feel that each exploit will have a huge impact on my own growth and development as a young man both emotionally and spiritually, in preparation for my senior years at Clongowes and in my personal life.
Because of these undeniable facts I will be working my absolute hardest to raise as much money as possible for the Hope Foundation charity and the Camino fund and would be forever grateful for your support. Together we can genuinely be involved in making a difference and in improving the futures of some of the poorest and most marginalised people in society today.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for considering my request. If you need any more information before making your decision please do not hesitate to contact me using any of the details at the start of this letter. If you require, I can send you a copy of the Hope Foundation letter that gives me authorisation to fundraise for them and for the Calcutta trip. Also, if you need any additional confirmation, please contact me as soon as possible so that I can give you the details of the relevant person at both Clongowes Wood College and the Hope Foundation. God bless.
Yours faithfully
A Mannion
As I am not 18 years of age I have given my mother the role of looking after withdrawals
Organizer and beneficiary
Aran Mannion
Organizer
Claire Louise Joyce
Beneficiary