Volunteers from Aer Lingus transformed the grounds for the students of St. Finian’s National School in Finglas

• Over 120 Aer Lingus volunteers transformed the school grounds of St. Finian’s National School in Finglas
• Projects completed creating new outdoor and recreational facilities
• 260 pupils at St. Finian’s National School will benefit from the renovation project

17 May 2024 – Aer Lingus celebrates 10 Years of giving back to their local community, as over 120 Aer Lingus employees volunteered their day to help transform the grounds of local school, St. Finian’s National School in Finglas, Dublin. The day was part of the Make a Difference Day initiative, the largest annual employee volunteer event to take place at Aer Lingus and the 10^th year of its involvement.

This year over 120 Aer Lingus employees from across all departments at the airline including cabin crew, engineers, pilots, operations control, catering, planning, ground operations, IT, corporate affairs, communications, marketing, finance, legal and HR, pitched in to transform the outdoor grounds of the school.

Volunteers set to work from 9am to complete all projects on the school’s wish list including transforming the outdoor courtyard into useable spaces complete with seating for outdoor classroom activity with shade and cover from the changeable Irish weather. The Aer Lingus team set out to construct fencing, seating, and planters around the school grounds. Centre stage will be an inspiring art mural which has been installed in the outdoor spaces.

Maria O'Connell, Principle at St. Finian’s National School, said;

“We are delighted to have such a big volunteer turn out from Aer Lingus here with us today. There has been great anticipation and build up and all the pupils are so excited to see their school outdoor area being transformed.

‘’We set Aer Lingus a big challenge for the day, so a big thank you to them for their hard work and dedication to completing our wish list of projects today. It’s wonderful for our pupils to feel so special that the Aer Lingus team took time to come to our school to make a difference.’’

Donal Moriarty, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Aer Lingus said;

“This year, Aer Lingus marks 10 years of making a difference in our local communities. Over the years our employees have made a real impact to local schools and Make a Difference Day has become the most anticipated and biggest volunteering event at Aer Lingus. We’re thrilled to be at St. Finian’s National School in Finglas today and our Aer Lingus volunteers have been hard at work transforming the school grounds for the benefit of the 260 pupils. We hope it will make the pupils of St. Finian’s happy and that the work done today will inspire and motivate the pupils for generations to come.’’

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Liz McNulty, Aer Lingus – 087-9097228

About Trinity St. Finian’s National School, Finglas

St. Finian’s National School, located in Finglas, Dublin 11, caters for pupils from early start right through to 6^th Class. There are 260 children in the school and 117 children in the school’s Continuum of Support. St. Finian’s ethos is to create a school environment that educates but also helps pupils regulate emotions, increase self-esteem and happiness, foster positive relationships, achieve academic success and provide a fun, happy and safe learning environment.

About Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus was founded in 1936. Aer Lingus operates over 100 routes from Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Knock to Europe, the UK and North America. Reaffirming its commitment to its North American expansion, the airline will operate 19 transatlantic routes in 2024 from Dublin and Shannon and a further three transatlantic routes from Manchester, UK to North America and the Caribbean.

Aer Lingus is a 4-star airline, awarded by Skytrax, the international air transport rating organisation. Aer Lingus is a member of International Airlines Group (IAG), one of the world’s largest airline groups. As part of IAG, Aer Lingus has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and has committed to powering 10% of its flights using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030.