Community and voluntary work recognised

SOUTH Galway is strongly represented among this year’s County Mayor’s Awards nominees. Groups and volunteers from across the area will find out on Thursday night if they are to receive the prestigious nod.

The awards acknowledge and celebrate community and voluntary activity around the county. A call was made in September for nominations to be made for the 11 categories and over 110 nominations were received. An independent judging panel then shortlisted the nominations and South Galway is represented in almost every category.

Gort Community School is among five organisations shortlisted for the Gradam Comhshaoil or environmental award. The school has been busy with staff and pupils working together to improve the environment.

“We are applying for our fourth Green Flag for transport at the moment,” explained Anna Casey-Donoghue of Gort Community School. The school already has the flags for litter, energy and water.

“This nomination reflects all that we have done for the environment and with the community to date. For our travel flag the teachers are car pooling and we have a bike shed now so we are trying to entice students to cycle. A lot of them get the bus at the moment, as they are entitled to, but for the ones who live locally and don’t get the bus, we are encouraging them to cycle.

“We have done a lot of work in the area of recycling. We do things with the Jack and Jill Foundation, whereby we recycle mobile phones, console games and ink cartridges. The foundation gives us laptops in return for the phones. We got two last year and raffled them among the students.”

“A lot of our environmental work is done through the Green Schools Committee here. That is made up of two representatives of each year. We help with Gort Tidy Towns, taking part in tidying the public park, planting bulbs, tidying up the flower boxes and weeding in conjunction with Gort Tidy Towns group. We do the same on the school grounds. Every year the graduating Leaving Certs plant a tree so we now have 17 new trees on the grounds, one for each of the years since we opened,” explained Ms Casey-Donoghue.
The school separates its waste, recycles batteries and composts its organic waste.

“We had a big problem with food waste, whereby students were just putting the food they weren’t eating into a bin. Now we have designated food waste bins and the contents of those go into the bird feeders. We are also in the process of tackling the chewing gum problem. We have requested papers, so that students can wrap their chewing gum and put it in the bin.”

It is not just conventional waste the school is recycling. Teachers and students have also come up with some re-using strategies.

“This Thursday at lunchtime we are having a book sale, whereby revision books will be available for a flat rate of €2. Anyone wishing to donate revision books can do so too and if we sell their copy, they will receive €1. There is a glut of these books around and we are trying to get them out back into circulation. The sale is open to everyone and will be held at lunchtime in the school assembly hall.”

The school is setting up a second-hand uniform scheme and has also begun harvesting natural resources.

“We have a rainwater harvesting scheme in our new dressing rooms and we have solar panels. We have a rain butt at the back of the school taking water off the roof. We have signs all over the school urging people to turn off taps, laptops and computers at the end of the school day to reduce energy,” Ms Casey-Donoghue stated.

The Blue Teapot Theatre Company, which operates in Gort, Craughwell and Carraroe, is one of five groups shortlisted for the arts and culture award. Its remit is to encourage social integration and inclusion. The company offers an environment where actors with an intellectual disability can thrive creatively.

It also has a performing arts school, which provides a FETAC accredited, three-year programme offering training in performing arts skills to people with intellectual disability. The company also has an Outreach programme, Bright Soul.

The Gradam Foilseachám Oidhreachta or heritage publication award shortlist features two Kinvara publications. Burrenbeo Trust is nominated for magazines and field guides on the Burren, while the Dolmen Centre is shortlisted for Kinvara, Portrait of a Village.

Ballinderreen National School is one of five educational organisations to find itself in the running for the Gradam do Scoileanna a Chuireann le hOidhreacht, the schools’ contribution to heritage award.

Principal of Ballinderreen National School, Nichola Spokes said, “We would be involved in several heritage projects. We are in the Green Flag programme and are now on flag number five. We have always been interested in drawing on local heritage and expertise and regularly have people come into the school to talk to and work with the children. Gordon D’Arcy lives locally and would do bird watching with the children. We are so close to the sea too, so we have had people in from the local aquarium. They helped us set up a school aquarium. We have parents who work in the university so we would have experts coming in talking about animals that we have locally.”

As well as having an organic garden and planting trees, the school is in the early stages of setting up its own oyster farm.

“We are right beside the sea and a lot of our nature study and science study relates to what is on our doorstep. We have so much nearby and we feel it is better than travelling around the country to things. We are very interested in the sea and fishermen in particular and fishing as a way of life because it is something that is declining with so many people moving into the area who are not from a fishing background,” explained Ms Spokes.

The Lady Gregory and Yeats Heritage Trail Group, Gort is among the five finalists for the Gradam don Rannchuidiú is Fearr le Oidhreacht. Also in the best contribution to heritage category is Loughrea’s Coiste Shlógadh Eachtaí, which is also on the shortlist for the intergenerational award at the ceremony.

Ballinderreen Community Centre, The Dolmen Centre in Kinvara and the Gort Family and Community Resource Centre take three of the nominations for the social inclusion award, while Brent Kelly of the Gort FRC is also named on the shortlist for the volunteer of the year award.

The winners will be presented with a specially-commissioned Mayors Award handmade by Loughrea’s Marcin Calka of Reborn Art Studios and a prize of €500 to use for their work.