Missing Limerick preschool sign washes up in Shannon Estuary
A HANDCRAFTED sign donated to a Limerick preschool that went missing has washed up in the Shannon Estuary.
Local native Valerie Lysaght has been running Freckle’s Preschool on the Mill Road, where she grew up in Corbally, since 1998.
On October 7 of this year, coinciding with National Tree Week, the children planted a Cherry Blossom sapling near the community fairy garden.
Parents pitched in and donated spring bulbs, which are to adorn the site in months to come, she told the Limerick Leader.
“We were trying to depict a way of giving back to the community and educate the children about nature and the environment,” she said.
A beautiful, handcrafted sign was donated by one of the children’s gifted grandfather's and was placed on the fairy tree “with great pride.”
A few weeks ago, Valerie informed, the sign went missing.
Efforts were made through posts on her parents WhatsApp page as well as the Corbally Residents Facebook page and the The Mill Road Fair Garden Page to get the sign back.
“We were devastated to get no feedback,” she conceded.
Several hand painted fairy rocks were also removed from the site, in what Valerie described as “a needless act of sheer vandalism.”
On December 5, she received a call from Billy Fitzgerald, a gentleman who had found the sign at Bushy Island, which had been washed up near his home close to Beagh Castle, Ballysteen, by the Shannon Estuary.
She has taken the saga as a sign that there are still “wonderful people in this crazy world.”
“Like Billy who showed his children the journey it made through water, we cannot wait to tell the story to our preschool children.
“We have not informed them to date that the sign was missing as we did not want to upset them,” she concluded.