Draperstown pupil’s jersey design making waves across Europe

Each week the team have been creating a new activity and sharing it through YouTube to over 600 schools across Northern Ireland.

Last week Ronan McLaughlin, Active Travel Officer for the North West shared an activity with schools encouraging their pupils to design a jersey for their school.

The brief was simple; use the template provided and imagine your school has a cycling club and with any combination of school colours, crest, local landmarks and your imagination, create a cycling jersey for your school.

St Mary’s Primary School, of Draperstown, picked up the activity and as they do every week, shared the resource with families at home.

This was all the inspiration P7 pupil Conan Shivers needed. Conan set about designing a jersey with quite a powerful message simultaneously supporting the NHS front line staff and spreading the important message ‘Save lives, Keep your distance’.

When Conan submitted his design to the school P7 teacher Mr Brunton immediately recognised the design’s brilliance and importance of the message and took to Twitter to share Conan’s powerful jersey.

Within minutes this tweet was being retweeted by Draperstown locals and cyclists the length and breadth of Europe alike.

Some famous names of cycling such as Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui, who just happens to be a former pupil of St Mary’s PS, and former Tour De France cyclist Daniel Lloyd, shared the tweet.

Within hours clothing companies where queuing up to produce the jersey for Conan and talks of charity fund raising campaigns began to circle.

The jersey is now in production and will be on its way to Conan in the very near future.

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