All night soccer fundraiser at Waterford helps Uganda school
Over the last two weeks De La Salle College Waterford held their overnight soccer fundraiser and it proved to be a huge success by raising a total of €8330.58 for an extremely worthy cause. The funds will go towards a girls’ dormitory for one hundred girls and three classrooms in Butema, Uganda.
Thanks a million to all of our 1st Years who raised money for the event, with 1HD taking in the most and earning three nights off homework this week! A huge thank you to the 1st Years, staff and our TYs and LCAs who helped out both weeks. A special word of thanks to Br. Tommy too, for his determination to bring back this fantastic event.
Our funding raising Lottery
We are delighted to announce that we had a jackpot winner in last week’s school lottery. The lucky person, a parent of one of our sixth year students won a prize of almost €1,100. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting the school lottery to date. The Parents Association have the job of deciding where the funds raised are spent in the school. We currently have over 100 members, with a target of 200. If you can join and haven’t already done so please do as every cent raised will be spent on additional extras for our students.
Please encourage anyone you know who has links with the school to join us.
A reminder below on how draw works
People can buy a ticket up to 7pm every Thursday before the draw. Our fundraiser website Ourfundraiser DLS will show an ‘Updating’ message each Thursday night and is updated every Friday morning at 8.30am with your draw numbers, winners name and next week’s jackpot value, and all supporters will receive an email to thank them for their support and with a link to your fundraiser website for results.
Weekly winner - the weekly winner will get an email from us each Friday morning letting them know they won. You will also get an email with the winners contact details for you to contact and arrange to give prize.
Jackpot winner – when there is a JP winner, the winner by contacted Friday morning and share the good news. We then follow up with the winner, do governance checks and arrange a bank transfer to the winners bank account. The school’s parents association then arranges presentation of thank you card and photos etc.
This Christmas there will be additional prizes in our draw on 15thDecember. Our members will be included in a national draw the details which may be seen below. There will be further spot prizes restricted to our members. These include, a sports suit, one dozen slitoars and a Country Style voucher to the value of €100 donated by the Williams family and Country Style. Four pieces of furniture made by and donated by our students. A voucher from Jack Molloy catering, a voucher from Mulligans Pharmacy and a voucher from Goldstone Gym and Fitness, to mention but a few will also be on offer.
School Building
We are delighted to announce the completion of additional accommodation in the college consisting of a new Home Economics Room, Woodwork and Building Construction Room and a Computer Room. We are extremely grateful to DES for funding this development to the tune of nearly €2 million. The first classes moved into the new build after the midterm break. Photographs to follow.
Hot on the heels of this addition to the school we are proud to announce the DES has given us the go ahead for the building of additional accommodation to the tune of €7.7 million. This development is at a very early stage with tenders having recently gone out for a design team. WE would hope to have a completed project in September 2026.
On top of this we are currently constructing two new outdoor basketball court.
Sports
Hot on the heels of our recent senior golf Munster championship our Hurlers, Rugby players, soccer players, boxers and athletes have been out in force. The Harty Cup team qualified from a very strong group for the quarter final stage. Our Soccer teams have all progressed to the next stage of the completions. We are currently defending Munster champions at U 17 and U 19 soccer and have a sprinkling of school boy internationals in our midst.
Two of our students performed admirably in the National Indoor multi event competitions recently, one coming home with the bronze medal. Our boxers continue to perform well.
Our first year rugby team recently won the Jon O’Neill shield against all the odds. They outperformed 18 teams to come home with the trophy. Jack O’Donoghue (a former student) captained the Munster Rugby team that recently beat a South African selection in Parc Uí Caoimh.
Ballygunner are up and running again in the club hurling championship. All members of the team are past students of the school with the exception of one who is currently a teacher in the school.
Junior Cycle Results
The results eventually came out on Wednesday last. The long wait for a COVID influenced cohort is finally over. Our students did extremely well and were very content with their results and the half day that came with it.
The college is currently working on several projects under the SSE, Wellbeing and LAOS umbrellas to investigate how COVID has affected our students. It is hoped as we move on through this journey we will get a better understanding of the issues as they continue to affect our students.
Lasallian Matters
Our new teachers continue on their induction journey under the guidance of our animation team. Ms. Walsh, our ethos coordinator has recently developed posters with the core values which have been placed in all classrooms. A great reminder for all attending is that we are livening in the holy presence of God and that by living Jesus in our hearts we can make a difference in those who come into our sphere of influence.
Under the social justice umbrella, there are many fundraisers going on in the school currently. Ms. Fowler is heading up a raffle in aid our ASD community, Br. Tom has just counted the €8,000 he raised in the overnight soccer with first year students in aid of his summer project in Uganda, SVP are filling boxes with food and raising money all over the place.
Last week was LGBTQ+ awareness week in the college. It is great that we now have a group of students working in this area with the assistance of two teachers.
In terms of ecological justice, our Green Schools group continue to work in the local community and school. We are currently putting an effort into segregation of school waste and introducing LED lighting to the school. The student council led a climate action week two weeks ago.