Can you bee-lieve it! Roscrea school’s bursary success

St Cronan’s National School in Roscrea was announced as one of the 10 winners of SuperValu’s Save The Bees €50,000 bursary. The 10 winning schools were announced last month on International Bee Day and each school will receive €5,000 from SuperValu to help improve biodiversity within the school and surrounding areas.

SuperValu’s Save The Bees campaign in partnership with the All-Ireland Pollinator plan saw all 3,241 primary schools in Ireland receive a SuperValu Save the Bees Pollinator Pack so they could create their own bee-friendly garden. Schools across Ireland completed a Save the Bees School Collection Poster with 300 Save the Bees cards which they picked up in their local SuperValu Store to promote awareness and action. The ten winners of the bursary were chosen at random from over 555 entries to the competition.

School principal of St Cronan’s National School, Ms Ann Powell, said: “We are thrilled to have been selected as one of the winners of SuperValu’s Save The Bees campaign! We are a small two teacher school and while our school has a beautiful garden, we would love to enhance it further. Using the amazing €5,000 bursary from SuperValu We are going to invest in new garden furniture made from recycled material so the children can enjoy our bio-diverse outdoor environment. We also plan to add additional raised beds for our garden and plan to purchase a composter so we can make our own organic fertilizer. Big thanks to each of the parents and families who collected the SuperValu Save The Bees cards over the last few months.”

Congratulating St Cronan’s National School, Brian Colclough, Bernie’s SuperValu Roscrea, added “Huge congratulations to all the students, families and staff at St. Cronan’s National School for their tremendous efforts and for winning a share of the €50,000 SuperValu Save The Bees bursary.

SuperValu want to help local communities, schools and families lead the way in creating an Ireland where pollinators can thrive, and the Save The Bees campaign was about raising awareness to younger generations about the simple steps we can take to make Ireland a habitable ecosystem of bees and protecting our pollinators to help protect our planet. Ireland’s bees are facing a very real and current threat and as it stands, nearly one-third of Irish bees are in danger of becoming extinct. The loss of such a substantial portion of our bee population would be catastrophic. More than 75 per cent of our plant species are animal pollinated and bees are important pollinators of Irish produce like strawberries and apples, and they ensure diverse wild plant communities across the countryside that help regulate climate, provide healthy spaces for recreation, and support other wildlife. The collectable cards that schools across the country collected included key facts to educate and provide action for our children and through Save The Bees, SuperValu has helped create over 3,000 refuelling spots for busy bees in schools across the country.”

The SuperValu Save the Bees Pollinator Pack was co-created with Dr Una Fitzpatrick, Head of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and was endorsed by SuperValu Ti-dyTowns.

The SuperValu TidyTowns competition also recognises the value and importance of biodiversity. Nearly half (46 per cent) of all TidyTowns committees say that biodiversity is their main priority area. More than 200 SuperValu TidyTowns committees have en-gaged with the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and made their local areas significantly pollinator friendly. In 2021, Buncrana, Co Donegal won the SuperValu TidyTowns’ All Ireland Pollinator Plan Local Authority Pol-linator Award.