Here are Juliet Hunter’s words, one of the TY students who took part explaining why they got involved

“Hallowe’en. It is thought to be the scariest time of the year. But what if it wasn’t? Imagine if this fear was yours every day. Imagine a Hallowe’en that never seemed to end. For some, Hallowe’en is their reality. For sick children and their parents Hallowe’en is theirs for every day, for every hour, of every minute.

Trick or Treat for Sick Children changes Hallowe’en for these families. Hallowe’en becomes a celebration. It becomes a party to dress up for. It is celebrating because this scary time won’t last forever! That is why we here at Wilson’s Hospital School wanted, and continue to want, to share in this celebration. Our Transition Year students especially wanted to celebrate. Not only themselves, but with others too! A celebration of light in a dark time. A celebration of coming out of the darkness.

It was with this in mind that we set out to do something special. I was one such student, one of the lucky students. It all began with a dance class where we choreographed a dance to “Thriller” and “Superstitious”, our hope was only to surprise those in the school community on that final Friday before midterm with a flash mob as covid restrictions curtailed us. However, on the week of Hallowe’en restrictions on live performances lifted, so on the day before what was meant to be our singular school performance, we were told we were doing two more! Two more, but in Mullingar!

We had all worked tirelessly and were ready, but on the day of our performance you could cut the tension with a knife. This lasted until we arrived at our first location and the music began to blast. Then there were no more nerves, and everyone was performing as best they had ever done! Walking back to the bus, our buckets for Trick or Treat for Sick Children were weighing us down, they were that heavy! We were delighted as what had started out as something small (our school performance) had become something so much bigger and better and that we were able to help the sick children in Crumlin, Temple Street and Connolly.”