Press Release 15 May 2017
Immediate use
Ulster Bank joins Dolly Parton to support young bookworms
Generous staff from Ulster Bank are helping to spread a little bit of Dolly Parton magic to children at Cliftonville Integrated Primary School in North Belfast. The school operates the only Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Northern Ireland. The Imagination Library requires additional support from the local community to keep going. The scheme celebrates reading, learning and cultural diversity, which all figure strongly in the ethos of Cliftonville IPS. It also works with schools to promote self-esteem and confidence in children.
Laura Calvin of Ulster Bank made a special visit to Cliftonville IPS last Friday (12 May) to hear more about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and to see how a donation from the Bank’s Staff Charity Committee is being put to excellent use.
Staff at the Bank were only too happy to give £2,500 to support the scheme, providing each of around 50 children with a new reading book every month. These are delivered straight to their homes for a period of two years.
Laura, who chairs the Ulster Bank Staff Charity Fund, met some of the Cliftonville IPS Nursery and P1 children who are benefitting from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. She commented
“I received a lovely welcome from the school; it has a very friendly atmosphere. It was great to see the children in the nursery unit so interested in their reading and I enjoyed spending time with them all. It is great to see the positive outcome of the Ulster Bank Staff Charity Fund donation and hope we can continue to supportprojects like this in the future.”
Cliftonville IPS Principal Brenda McMullen added:
“We were delighted to welcome Laura today. We wanted to say a massive thank you to her and her colleagues at Ulster Bank for their support. Reading is such an important [continues] part of a child’s education and not every child has access to such beautiful materials at home, especially within our school community. The joy the children receive when they see the books arriving every month is really quite special.”
In the picture: Laura Calvin of Ulster Bank shares a love of reading with young pupils at Cliftonville Integrated Primary School, where children will continue to benefit from free books via Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library thanks to a donation from Ulster Bank staff.
Note for editors:
The IEF is the charity (registered as NIC104886) which provides financial support for the development and growth of integrated education. Our aim is to enable children to learn together in an environment that celebrates religious and cultural diversity, making integration, not separation, the norm in the Northern Ireland education system. On the basis of parental demand we continue to support the establishment of more integrated school places, the transformation of existing non-integrated schools to integrated status and cross-community school initiatives that provide meaningful interaction between pupils, parents, staff and the wider community.
Contact details:
Paul Caskey, Head of Campaign, IEF: 028 9069 4099
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