The “Trinity Takes To The Streets” (TTTTS) initiative has had a very successful 2009, raising 110,00 euro for educational access initiatives and student hardship bursaries. The money raised will now go towards the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), The National Institute for Intellectual Disabilities (NIID), and the Student Hardship Fund.
This money was raised in a number of ways, primarily through running. Fifty people, including staff, students, alumni and friends, ran the Dublin City marathon on the 25th of October and recieved sponsorship for their efforts. Participants also ran in the Trinity fun run on the 23rd of October and runners also took part in the New York Alumni Fun Run on the 24th of October.
“Trinity Takes to the Streets” also organised a number of other events, including a table quiz and a TAP Laughs Comedy Night.
The money will be spread out among these three university initiatives promoting acccess to education for disadvantaged groups.
The TAP scheme, which was established in 1993, aims to engage greater numbers of students from underpriveliged socio-economic groups in third level education.
The National Institute for Intellectual Disabilities is an institute centring on learning for individuals with intellectual disability, disability research, and raising awareness of disability issues. It develops educational programmes focussed on the learning needs of people with intellectual disability. The Student Hardship Fund is a college assigned fund which can assist any student in financial difficulty.
Trinity takes to the Streets celebrated the end of the year with an event “ Pies in the Pav”, where prizes were presented to participants who completed the marathon in the fastest and slowest time and also a special to Eda Sagarra for the greatest number of sponsors.
Representatives from the three initiatives were also present, Myra Regan ( Senior Tutor), Kathleen O’Toole from TAP and Molly O’Keefe from NIID. All three thanked the participants and gave an account of how the funds raised could help Trinity students in these challenging times.
Director of Trinity Foundation, Nick Sparrow also thanked the staff, students and alumni of Trinity: “This collective community effort has made a huge difference – we look forward to helping the College build on this initiative as a means of harnessing people’s enthusiasm and goodwill in the future.”
The money raised by “Trinity Takes to the Streets” will now give opportunities to hundreds of Trinity students and will help them realise their educational potential.The money will have wide-ranging effects right across the board.
For example the initiative says that 100 euro could help a student through a financial crisis and be the difference between a student staying in college or dropping out. On the other end of the scale, 10,000 euro will support a Trinity link with a school in inner city Dublin, including educational programmes for school children and mentoring activities.
