Trinity College Dublin’s Student Union have organised a room full of puppies to help stressed students relax and de-stress during exam time.
The event was run in conjunction with Peata Ireland, a charity which aims to enhance the quality of life of people in caring institutions with the use of dogs.
“It’s something we’ve been trying to for the entire year, our exams start next week so there’s high level of stress amongst the student body” said SU Welfare officer and organiser Stephen Garry.
“It’s something a little bit different and something that was really desired in the college so I’m glad we could do it.”
The puppy room was open solely to Trinity students. They didn’t have to pay but were encouraged to make donations of either €2 or €5 to Peata Therapy Dogs Ireland. They were allowed to spend between 10-15minutes with the dogs.
“The donations are not the reason we ran this in the first place, we’ve no target per say but I think what’s really beneficial for Peata is the publicity, it’s gained a lot of national media coverage which is obviously fantastic for the organisation” explained Garry.
The event was the first of its kind in Irish Universities but was an initiative started in the US universities a few years ago. There were over two thousand five hundred attendees on the Trinity SU’s Facebook event.
Final year student Eoin Egan was very much looking forward to the event saying “I think it’s a brilliant idea. The reason it’s so popular is because we’re all stressed out. Trinity, in its wisdom, puts all our exams at the end of the year.”
A snapchat account was set up on the day under the name ‘TCDbarks’ to keep students across the country who couldn’t attend up to the date with all the action throughout the day.
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