BALLYWALTER Primary School handed over an amazing £20,000 to the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice earlier this week.
The school choir’s new video We are thankful was launched at a special assembly on Monday morning to thank everyone for ‘helping us to do something that really mattered’.
The fundraising project began with the ‘Little Stars’ song which grew into a powerful video filmed at the children’s hospice, and then the school choir were invited to make a professional recording.
Six other local primary schools – Ballyvester, Bangor Central Integrated, Ballyholme, Kircubbin Integrated, Portavogie and Victoria Primary, Ballyhalbert – joined the Ballywalter school choir for a special evening of musical performances at Bangor Elim.
Ballywalter choir members Sophia Rogers, Jonah McGarvey, Phoebe Long, Emily Karadayi, Charlotte McShane and Briar Davidson introduced the We are thankful video which was written and produced by P3 teacher Briar Kennedy.
Sophia welcomed her fellow pupils and guests to the assembly, adding the choir were really excited to share something special with them.
Jonah explained how over the past year Ballywalter Primary had been part of a big project to help raise money for the Children’s Hospice.
The journey began in June 2024, Phoebe explained, when the choir began learning a brand new song written by Mrs Kennedy and her brother Blair Bailie especially for the hospice.
Then, Emily explained, the choir was invited to the hospice in Belfast to record a video with some of the children and families who use it and ‘the amazing staff’ who work there.
Charlotte said: “Then something amazing happened – our video was shown on UTV and it started going viral online – people everywhere started hearing our song.”
Briar Davidson added: “That’s when we realised that our little school could actually make a big difference.”
Jonah explained that on March 14, the school helped organise a big concert in Bangor Elim church with six other schools who joined to support the hospice.
Each of the schools organised their own fundraisers such as dance-a-thons, special assemblies and non-uniform days with everyone working ‘so hard’.
The final total was £20,146.75 for the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.
Briar Davidson described the amount as being something of which they were ‘really proud of’.
“But we’re even more proud of what we’ve learned along the way – about working together, helping others and being part of something bigger than ourselves – it really opened our eyes,” she said.
“We learned what it means to care for someone who is sick, what it means to be there for someone who is hurting, how important it is to be kind, brave and full of hope and how much we have to be thankful for.”
On behalf of the choir, Sophia thanked Grace Stewart, Director of the Hospice, for welcoming them to visit and be part of this project, and Emily thanked Sarah Jane Carty from Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice for helping to organise the concert and who ‘supported us every step of the way’.=
The ‘We are thankful’ video is available on Ballywalter Primary School’s Facebook page.
