Music and song can soothe the soul. Something we can all do with during this time. Galway based platform Inspiring You has gone one step further and organised a song competition for school students of all ages with the iconic Dublin balladeer Damien Dempsey. The theme of the competition is "sing all your cares away," with the winning entry receiving a class visit from Dempsey.
The response to date has been brilliant with songs being submitted by students ranging in age from seven to 17 from across Ireland.
The Inspiring You concept started in late 2017 when Galway based school teacher Philip Cribbin decided to set up a platform to encourage children to use social media less and engage in more real life activities. As a father and a teacher he felt that children were missing out on the natural sense of wonder due to overuse of technology.
Since its inception Inspiring You has been to the fore in launching competitions and concepts that have garnered national support and media attention. The group has worked with leading personalities such as Cork sports star Rena Buckley, Irish international Shane Long, athletics great Catherina McKiernan, musical genius Sharon Shannon, Galway based Tribes Press, and Galway footballer Mairéad Seoighe.
Among the initiatives children using the platform have taken part in are an Ocean Transformer environmental competition, and a bake off competition with Steeltech. One of the more emotive projects that the group worked on was with Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental. Inspiring You arranged for Mr Reichental to be interviewed by a nine-year-old Galway boy, in a video that went viral and received great reaction globally.
The platform is similar in concept to Operation Transformation. It is hoped that children and parents explore Inspiring You online and engage with content of interest to them and get creative in real life.
Inspiring You has Kamil Films as media partner and together they have worked on the hugely successful 'Fields of Athenry' and 'Galway Girl' videos which helped showcase the energy and beauty of Galway to more than 13 million people globally.
The team is always looking for fresh ideas to help inspire children to do more in real life, and is looking forward to sharing new projects for children in 2021
If you would like to find out more about Inspiring You's Sing All Your Cares Away competition, or the work of the group, visit www.inspiringyou.ie, follow @inspiringyouirl on social media, or email [email protected].
