CREATING: Teacher Lorraine Crowley and student Lauren Fleming from Killarney Community College pictured creating photos for the 2022 charity calendar.

By Michelle Crean

Students are putting their creativity to the test by capturing images under various themes as a fundraiser for their school and a local charity.

Inspired by their teacher Lorraine Crowley, who has a passion for photography, and organised with the Parents Council of Killarney Community College, First to Sixth Year students, as well incoming First Year students, are being encouraged to click the shutter to capture a different theme every month.

Lorraine will then put together a display of photographs from each theme, from each year group per month and the calendar will be designed and published over the summer ready to go on sale in the autumn.

After developing an interest in photography in 2016, Lorraine has experience in creating her own calendar for charities in her local area.

In December 2018, a neighbour of Lorraine's, John Eagle, passed away from cancer. John was a local photographer in the Beara Peninsula and was known widely around the country. Before he passed away, he asked Lorraine to continue his calendar and so she did. Between her calendar for 2020 and 2021, she has raised almost €8,000 for St Joseph's Hospital, Castletownbere and Cancer Connect, two charities that were close to John's heart.

"From experience, it is important that the photographs for each month of the year in the calendar need to illustrate that month," Lorraine said.

"So, together with the Parents Council, we decided to give the students a different theme every month this school year from December to May for the calendar next year. The Transition Years helped me to pick the themes to give to the students."

The students are given two themes every month such as 'sparkle', 'water', 'frost', 'winter landscape', 'red and pink', 'living lockdown', 'springtime', 'green', 'clouds', 'flowers' etc. These are to encourage the students to reflect their own perception of the theme in a photograph, she explained.

"During lockdown this was a great task for us to get us out and about in the fresh air and be in nature. It is great excitement to get the themes every month," added student Jack Ryan Brain.