This article is from page 56 of the 2007-09-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 56 JPG
STEP aside Chris Tarrant, the real Who Want to Be a Thousandaire is coming to Ballyvaughan’s brand new Burren Coast Hotel this October.
The charity evening, which is be- ing organised to help fund exten- sion work at Ballyvaughan National School, will take place on October 13 and will offer locals the real chance to grab some cold hard cash.
The game will follow the formula of the popular television programme, and will even include a video up- link to the competitor’s ‘Phone a Friends’.
“In terms of numbers, the school is fairly solid with 65 or so students. The problem is the size of the class- rooms. It is quite small at present.
The department has guidelines which say that if you are building a new school, each class should be 72 Square metres, our classes are only 36 square metres,’ said school prin- cipal, Michael Canavan.
“We decided that the best thing would be to put in three proper sized class rooms. A principles office, staff room and two smaller room for our two learning support teachers. The Government will provide a certain amount of the money, but we do need to raise in the region of €60,000 or €70,000 to complete the project.”
Once the extension has been com- pleted, the school plans to convert an upstairs area in the extention to a new computer room and library for the students.
“It’s a real community thing. We
have three main sponsors – the Bur- ren Coast Hotel, the Ailwee Caves and M&M Construction. They are all local which is great,’ continued Mr Canavan.
‘“Ailwee cave have children in the school, M&M will soon have chil- dren in the school and the Burren Coast have just opened up down the road from us and have been very generous.
“We have about 40 or 50 smaller advertisers, who are mostly all lo- cal people who have also been very generous. A lot of people who have holiday homes in the area have also given money.
“School is becoming a very fo- cal point in the community. A lot of times, school is the only place where parents would meet these days.”
Tickets for the big ‘Who wants to be a Thousandaire’ are available lo- cally from all members of the fund- raising committee or at the door on the night. The evenings competitors will be drawn from the tickets sold.