Fundraising walk through Tipperary will help every child enjoy playtime

A garda living in Tipperary is preparing to undertake an arduous trek through the length of the county to raise funds for visual aids that help children who have difficulty with communication.

Between Wednesday, September 13 and Saturday, September 16, Alan Moynihan will walk just over 79 miles from Roscrea to Ballyporeen to raise funds for communication boards for the playgrounds and primary schools of Tipperary.

These boards will make these spaces more adaptable and accessible for those children who struggle with communication to indicate their needs to parents, teachers and other children.

“There’s a need for these boards, especially for children who are non-verbal,” says Alan, who has lived in Ballyporeen for the past six years.

Originally from Cork city, he is based at the Garda station in Anglesea Street, Cork.

“We need to move away from this idea that children who experience these difficulties need to adapt to regular surroundings, and make the accessibility that these communication boards provide common features in all of these public spaces”.

Alan said that when he started his career as a garda twenty years ago, many public spaces and buildings didn’t have ramps or wheelchair accessible facilities.

“These communication boards are a natural progression from that and they should become the norm in public facilities to help make these spaces more adaptable”.

He says that the boards are designed specifically for playgrounds and schools. They include an alphabet, as well as pictures and symbols that contain messages such as “I am cold,” “I am thirsty” and “I want to go home”, as well as the words you, me and they.

Alan says that the boards will be purchased from Finding Charlie’s Voice, an Irish registered charity that supports children and young adults with speech and language communication needs in Ireland.

The charity was inspired by Charlie, who is now nine, and who was born with Verbal Dyspraxia - a rare neurological speech sound disorder, impacting about one in one thousand children worldwide.

The charity says its communication boards support any person (young or old) who at any stage may have difficulty being able to communicate or understand.

This may include those with Down Syndrome, the autistic community, those with English as an additional language, children with speech sound disorders such as verbal dyspraxia, those with receptive/expressive language difficulties such as developmental language disorder, those with anxiety around speaking, situational mutism and many more.

In a testimony on the Finding Charlie’s Voice website, school principal Catriona Golden says “When the communication board was delivered to our school we had one non-speaking pupil who immediately ran over to it, pointed at another child, pointed at the word ‘run’ and then raced with that child in the yard.

“That was the first peer interaction that that child ever initiated, nine months into junior infants.

“A communication board is an absolute necessity for any school aiming to be inclusive, in a wide variety of ways.

“From communication difficulties to social difficulties to language needs, it’s a tool that makes playtime accessible to every child, allowing them to engage with their peers without adult support being needed at all times.

“It’s a simple, incredibly cheap way to actively promote true inclusion. It has an immediate impact on children and should be available in all settings where children are”.

Alan Moynihan says that a friend was involved in making submissions to the council in an attempt to have the communication boards funded and installed in playgrounds.

Alan believes that rather than doing small fundraisers, it is better to undertake one large fundraising event, and that was when he decided on the walk.

“If we’re doing an ambitious fundraiser we should be ambitious about what we’re trying to achieve and that is why the schools are included”.

He has a target of €12,000 for the walk. It will cost approximately €4,000 to provide communication boards in every playground in the county, and a further €18,000 for every primary school yard in the county.

He says there is also a GAA-specific communication board that he might consider fundraising for in the future.

The first stage of Alan’s walk will take him from Roscrea to Thurles, followed by Thurles to Cahir on day two and Cahir to Ardfinnan via Clonmel on day three.

On the final day he will walk from Ardfinnan to Ballyporeen via Clogheen.

He has trained hard in preparation for the trek.

“Every minute that I’m not working I’m training, which includes walking a couple of kilometres on my lunch break.

“I’m also cycling between ten and fifteen kilometres at night to reduce the impact on my knees and ankles”.

Alan is undertaking the walk alone, and for the last kilometre of each stage anyone who wants to join him is welcome to do so.
He will be accompanied by a support vehicle that will have water and first aid equipment, as well as by volunteers who will let motorists know that there is a walker on the road.

Donations may be made on Alan Moynihan’s GoFundMe page under Tipp Through Tipp.

There is also a link to donate on his Instagram account (alanmoynihan84), and donations may also be made by scanning the QR code on the posters that have been circulated widely.

Alan is grateful for all donations received so far and welcomes any contributions, large or small.

Regular updates on his progress will be posted on social media.