Feena hopes to make life easier for sick children in hospitals

A Kilmacrennan-based school teacher whose life changed dramatically after her little two-year-old boy, Donagh, passed away hopes to offer a helping hand to parents and children who find themselves in hospital. Feena McBride attended Scoil Mhuire in Letterkenny and later Loreto Convent and later attended St Patrick’s College, in Drumcondra, Dublin.

“I went to the Convent in 1994 and left in 2000,” she said.

Feena’s dream was always to be a school teacher. She began to babysit children when she was nine years of age: “I always loved small kids. I was always the baby-sitter among my cousins and people around me. I was patient with them, I always really liked the little ones.”

Feena always taught younger children after she qualified as a teacher. Her career began in Castelfinn where she spent 8 years teaching. She later taught in Ellistrin in Letterkenny: “That was fantastic, the kids were really great there too.”

At that time, life was running smoothly for Feena and her husband Paul. They had three lovely children and life was great. However, life was about to change for the family: “Our little boy who was two passed away suddenly so then everything was obviously upside down. I went back to work and actually found that going back to work was a huge relief for me back then. Then the following year, I got pregnant again and then Covid hit. Éilis, my youngest, was born in 2020 and she was fantastic.”

Feena knew at that point that she didn’t want to return to work. She also knew that she didn’t want to work full time but would rather give her youngest child time when she was small. Éilis is two years of age, Róise is 11 and Clodagh is eight.

“During Covid everything was so different. You were trying to entertain children and I started noticing on social media that people were posting about ideas of things you could do with kids and I was always doing bits and pieces here with the kids. I was always into art not as an artist but I love teaching art - I was always into fostering creativity in children,” she said.

Feena recalls that when she was teaching, she hated walking into a classroom and seeing thirty of ‘the same thing’ on the wall. She loves to see individual art from each child. Feena comes from a business family and it came as a surprise to few that she came up with an idea to sell art and craft boxes to families.

“My dad had a clothes shop and I worked there until I was in my twenties. I was always looking for a business idea - something that would be a little change from teaching so anyway I came up with this idea then and it kind of snowballed,” she said.

The thought of putting the products on social media dictated that she had to have a company name and then a logo which led to Feena setting up a website. The Arty Fox became an overnight success. One of her boxes featured on the Late, Late Toy Show on RTÉ.

“It just took off. Over one weekend, I had eighty orders for those boxes. I was super busy that Christmas and then there was a lockdown called in January so it just continued,” she said.

In 2021, business was proving so busy that Feena decided to take a career break from work and delved into business: “I was doing courses with the local enterprise office. I did the Ambition programme with them which was a programme for female entrepreneurs which is so beneficial. I found I loved business, I loved networking, I loved presenting things, I loved social media and I started to see that I had skills.”

Feena said when she was teaching, she had been of the opinion that she had very few skills but discovered that this was certainly not the case: “I have communication skills, I have networking skills and I find that I can put people at ease and I found that these were really valuable skills in business. So, since then there have been a lot of ups and downs,” she said.

When life returned to normal - Feena’s business changed significantly. “There wasn’t the same need for craft boxes for households so I started doing workshops then. I went back to what I know so I went back to teaching kids. I have these art classes I run in Letterkenny once a month but I also work with the Irish Wheelchair Association which is for adults - it is just fantastic - food for the soul. It is probably the thing I enjoy the most.”

She has worked with youth groups, different charities, libraries: “I try to do as much work as I can when the children are in school.”

Feena also works with people who speak Irish: “I get a lot of work in different areas, I don’t have completely fluent Irish but what I have is enough.”

She also works a lot with Líonra Leitir Ceanainn providing workshops with parents and children: “I love that and you can show parents that it isn’t hard to do art.”

The business has moved more towards events and workshops. The craft boxes continue to be sent out to parents around the country. Feena has accomplished a lot over the past few years and adds she has two major ambitions to achieve yet and they are working at a music festival and towards helping children and those who care for them who find themselves in the Emergency Department of hospitals: “I got a contact within Childrens’ Health Ireland and I have been working with them since September and I launched a pilot scheme with them recently,” she says.

The pilot sees activities being provided for children while they are waiting in the Emergency Departments hospital. The pilot scheme is being run in both Tallaght and Connolly hospital in Dublin. Feena has achieved positive feedback in relation to the project and is exceptionally proud of how it has been going so far. “I really want to help children when they are in a tricky situation.”

Feena admits she always had drive and feels the future looks bright for both her and her family.