On the 12th of September a team of over 200 Avolon employees from each of the global offices, stepped away from their desks and made their way to St Brigid’s Junior National School for the third Annual Avolon Care Day.

On the 12th of September a team of over 200 Avolon employees from each of the global offices, stepped away from their desks and made their way to St Brigid’s Junior National School for the third Annual Avolon Care Day. Tribe members travelled from as far as New York, Florida, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and beyond to carry out the very ambitious plans that ‘Difference Days’ had designed for us. These plans included the creation of a multi-sensory room, indoor and outdoor Aistears, a nature trail, outdoor classrooms, a vegetable garden, a five aside pitch and much much more, all to be created in just one day. The day began with an incredible welcome by the students of St Brigid’s in the form of a guard of honour with specially created aviation themed posters as Tribe members entered the school grounds. Once in the school’s main hall with a cup of tea or coffee in hand, individual classes serenaded us with performances specially created for the day. This showed Tribe members how special the school was and provided the motivation to get straight to work.The morning consisted mainly of plenty of digging and sawing outside, while the painting of some masterpieces commenced indoors. By lunch time, signs of the transformation could be seen but a lot of work would need to be done in the afternoon to complete the project by the end of the day. After lunch, tribe members were treated to more performances by the students which included an MTV Music Awards worthy rendition of ‘My little aeroplane’ to the tune of ‘I’m a little teapot’ to a massive applause and plenty of cheers.Back to the job at hand, with a mad dash to the finish line, the project was completed on time, despite a few rain drops which delayed some painting efforts outside but did not dampen the efforts of the Tribe. With some wet heads, lots of very sore limbs and a few minor cuts & bruises, the Tribe returned to the main hall to take a well-earned rest and hot cup of tea followed by a quick walk around the school to survey the results of all our hard efforts of the day. Our only regret was not being able to see the students faces the next morning when they arrived into a newly transformed school.The ransformation would not have been possible without the imagination or determination of Difference Days. The energy and enthusiasm of Denis and his team enabled us to make the teachers visions a reality which was well beyond their dreams.A special word of thanks to all the incredible students, Mary Mullen (St Brigid’s Principal), Rosaleen Taylor, Joanne Reilly & all the other teachers and staff for allowing us to take over their school for the day but also for all their efforts prior to our arrival. Every inch of the school was decorated with aviation themed drawings, paintings and welcome posters. Even the parents participated by providing a helping hand in the afternoon to ensure the ambitious project was fully completed and on time. A very special day to remember for everyone involved!