Employees at Sligo’s two Abbvie plants volunteered for the week to paint the school’s grounds
Employees at a leading Sligo biopharmaceutical company gave up their time recently to help refurbish the grounds of a local gaelscoill.
AbbVie, which has two locations in Sligo, recently celebrated its seventh annual Week of Possibilities which includes volunteer work in community.
The initiative, which was put on pause for two years due to the pandemic, is the company’s signature community volunteering programme.
In Sligo, 159 AbbVie employees from the company’s facilities in Ballytivnan and the Manorhamilton Road jointly helped rejuvenate school grounds at Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré, Sligo.
The Sligo school, which employs 10 teachers and three special needs assistants, supports 244 pupils from junior infants to 6th class.
AbbVie volunteer spent 735 hours across the week creating a new sensory area and outdoor educational spaces, extensive planting, and painting of external walls, fences, benches across the school grounds.
In addition, a new decking area was installed, and a mini-tennis court and basketball court will be added to the newly tarmacked surfaces.
Speaking about the positive impact of the Week of Possibilities outreach, Mícheál Ó Broin, Principal, Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré, said: “I can’t thank the employees of AbbVie Sligo enough for helping to revitalise the grounds of Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré, adding much needed brightness and colour to the outdoor spaces of the school.
“We’ve been sharing the grounds of St. Mary’s GAA club for over 20 years, and we’ve never had the resources, people, time and money, to do up the outdoor school area.
“AbbVie’s Week of Possibilities has provided these vital resources for this work to happen which I, the teachers and parents, are hugely thankful for.
“Having over 150 volunteers over the course of a week give their time to make this happen has shown us how important and impactful employee volunteering can be for the Sligo community.
“It’s been amazing to see the Gaelscoil be transformed over the Week of Possibilities, going from being a dull grey outdoor area to a colourful energetic space that I know the children, teachers and parents will enjoy and benefit from.”
AbbVie believes in making a strong commitment to local communities, particularly in education. Commenting on the Sligo project Darren Egan, Site Director, AbbVie Manorhamilton Road said:
“We were delighted to come together again in person to participate in the recent Week of Possibilities project in Gaelscoil Chnoc na Ré. Giving back is a cornerstone of who we are as a company, and it was privilege to make a difference for a school in our local community in this way.”
Michael Gallagher, Site Director at AbbVie’s Ballytivnan site, said: “Supporting local communities is at the heart of AbbVie’s culture, and there is no greater example of this than our annual Week of Possibilities.
“I’d like to thank our employees who have given their time, talent and efforts across the week to help transform the school’s outdoor areas so that they can be enjoyed by students, teachers and special needs assistants when they return in September.”
