School’s garden tribute to much-loved teacher

POPULAR Drumragh teacher Graham Peters will continue to inspire future generations for years to come through a new garden in his memory.

The English teacher, who passed away almost three years ago aged just 40, is remembered as a humble, generous and gifted man.

With the memories, influence and wisdom imparted by Mr Peters “as clear as ever”, Drumragh College is seeking to establish a permanent and fitting tribute in the school.

A design by artist and teacher Gerry Bradley for an inspiration garden in the courtyard of the school has now been finalised and it is hoped to be installed in August.

This will include a ‘Mr Peters Cool Wall’, which was preserved from his class and replicated out of specially designed ceramic tiles.

The centrepiece of the garden will include one of Mr Peters’ favourite sayings – ‘You are not leaving until I see you smile’ – which will be written on tiling on the ground.

Business studies teacher, Grant Garden, who is leading the project said, “The idea is to create a pleasant, vibrant area for our young people to enjoy and continue to find inspiration from Mr Peters. Through his quotes, future pupils who weren’t fortunate enough to have been taught by him, can still draw inspiration from his words for many years to come.”

FUNDRAISING
A JustGiving campaign has been launched this week to raise the funds necessary to construct the garden.

A number of fundraising initiatives planned for the last term of school had to be cancelled, so Mr Garden is appealing for the wider community to make donations.

The campaign was launched on Wednesday with a video of the Drumragh staff remotely singing the Beatles hit ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ produced by Oscar Bradley from Overboard Media.

• To watch the video and donate via the JustGiving link https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/a-garden-for-graham visit the Drumragh College Facebook page.