Businesses around the country have been suffering in 2020 due to lockdowns and restrictions - and a group of secondary school students in Co Leitrim have decided to do something to help their local shops and businesses.

Carrick-on-Shannon Community School transition year students took inspiration from Willy Wonka for their project.

They created Christmas Chocolate Bars, with some containing special 'Golden Tickets' to support the local businesses of their town.

1,800 bars - all branded and designed by the students - arrived in Carrick-on-Shannon yesterday, and are now being distributed as part of a 'Be Local' initiative.

Eli Holmes was the project leader, and spoke to Lunchtime Live.

    

The transition year student explained: "We saw Carrick was struggling a bit this year because of COVID and all the lockdowns.

"We all put our heads together and came up with this idea of helping our local businesses. One of the ideas was the chocolate bars - to get the idea across of being local and staying local this year, because we know how much the businesses need it this year."

As part of their conversations with businesses, the students found that many were struggling - with some even coming close to closure.

Eli said: "We'd get them to sponsor a golden ticket in some of our chocolate bars, so it gives people a push to go around to the local businesses and see what they have in store for them.

"It was great to have something to do - go around town. I really got to know some of our local businesses... learned how much they were struggling, and seeing what we could do to help was so rewarding for us."

Golden tickets

Eli's classmate Kealan Hanifa said the students designed and produced the golden tickets.

Kealan said: "We went around the town, and asked certain businesses to offer a donation of €50 towards these golden tickets. They'll be putting boxes of golden tickets [on sale] around the town.

"It's a bit of Christmas spirit... almost like a fun activity for children and families to do. It's a great way to promote the project and encourage people to shop locally.

"The TY [students] in our school have been affected by COVID - we have no foreign trips or huge projects that would be happening. So it's a great experience for us as well, to just spread that joy and give back to our community."

He said the students also helped businesses with social media content, acting as a 'marketing team' to encourage people to shop locally.

Kealan said: "A lot of us have family members running businesses who have been affected by COVID.

"It's a great way to get everyone back together, and bring the community back to where it was."

Main image: Carrick-on-Shannon Community School - 48 TY Students with their mentors - Aoife McCormack, Gateway Marketing, Jo O'Brien, Vittos Restaurant and Vice Principal, Catriona Sexton. Photo: Gerry Faughnan.