Kildare students do 24-Hour Swim in aid of children's hospital

Transition Year students from Clongowes Wood College, Clane undertook the challenge of swimming for 24 hours in aid of Crumlin Children’s Hospital last week.  The 50 students swam in relay teams from 4pm Wednesday April 6 to 4pm Thursday April 7.  The fundraiser was part of the annual Clongowes Duck Push initiative for Crumlin and raised €8,000 – a significant boost to their overall goal this year of €30,000.  The swim took place in the Clongowes 25m indoor pool, a facility that is used by the students and local groups.

The Duck Push at Clongowes is a tradition that first started in 1993 and since then has raised over €2.2 million for the purchase of vital equipment in the children’s hospital.  Each year, transition year students at the Clane boarding school undertake to come up with creative mini companies and fundraising events throughout the school year before taking to the road to push the 3 meter high, bright yellow duck in June from Crumlin to Limerick, shaking buckets to raise funds along the route.

Some 50 students took part in the swim last week where they aimed to cover the length of the river Shannon, some 360km.  The overall distance covered by the swimmers exceeded the goal as they achieved over 406km.

The Duck Push holds a special place in the transition year programme at Clongowes and under the banner of “kids helping kids”, the school community and others are to be commended for their ongoing support of the fundraising efforts.  The GoFundMe page for the Duck Push is https://gofund.me/e36ad712

This first ever, 24-hour swim event was organised by four students: Matthew Kelly (Enniscorthy, Co Wexford), Ned Williams (Tinahealy, Co Wicklow), Osian Kileen (Clontarf, Dublin) and James Gilheany (Fenagh, Co Leitrim).

Fun for the whole family with Kildare village Easter activities

The students explained the importance of the Duck Push to the students:  “The whole ethos of our school is to be “a man for others” – this means if we can help those in need, then we should, and we are really happy to be able to do this fundraiser for the sick children in Crumlin.  Swimming for 24 hours was pretty tough but worth it to try to achieve our goal of purchasing vital equipment for sick children from all over Ireland that are being cared for in Crumlin Children’s Hospital.”

Mr Chris Lumb, Headmaster at Clongowes Wood College said: “We’re all very proud of the transition year boys who have come together to ensure those children in most need of our support will get equipment that they need to allow them to get the best possible care in Crumlin Children’s Hospital.”

In recent years, the Clongowes Duck Push has provided 3 Resuscitaire beds for ICU at the hospital, a Luminex MagPix Respiratory Machine and a PCR testing machine.  

Members of the public are encouraged to contribute to the Clongowes 2022 Duck Push for Crumlin Children’s Hospital at www.gofundme.com/duck-push-2022-clongowes. All donations are very gratefully appreciated.