Teachers, Ciara Duffy, Richie O'Donoghue, Annette Tarpey, Betty McLaughlin, Joe O'Meara with Sarah McCormack from The Mullingar Soroptomists, who were joined by first years at Mullingar CBS to launch The Soroptomist Balloon Day at the school on Friday of last week.

A reminder to look after our mental health

Students at CBS Mullingar are taking their mental health message seriously, not just for themselves, but for all of us.

One hundred and 30 students are going to give the town of Mullingar a colourful look on Thursday when they display upto 150 balloons with their own mental health messages.


Annette Tarpey, a first year teacher, contacted Mullingar Soroptimists to see how they could get the students involved and contribute to the national Soroptimist Project for Positive Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.


A balloon event was agreed.  With the Soroptimists and Mullingar Mental Health Association all the first years will display their best mental health messages.

Each student will create their own balloon message and find the best place in the town to show off their balloon message to the public. Balloons will be on display from Thursday morning to Saturday evening.


Three great prizes will be on offer for the students who have the best message content and have displayed the balloon in the best place to catch the eye of the public. A judging team of ten will walk the streets and give each balloon a score – top scores win! 

Betty McLaughlin, guidance counsellor, said: “The students are all excited about this project and can’t wait to tell their message – which are all very secretive at the moment. Having completed a mental health course with Finola Colgan, Mental Health Ireland, they are ready to tell us all about our mental health.”

Sarah McCormack, Soroptimist, who is the driving force behind this event, says: “It will be a very colourful event for Mullingar while also giving a reminder to us to look after our mental health – getting 130 young boys to stop and focus on their mental health is just wonderful – great credit is due to CBS particularly Annette Tarpey and Betty McLaughlin.


Thursday is the day – watch out for the colourful balloons and the mental health messages.