Order of Malta volunteers honoured

A NUMBER of members of the Shannon Unit of the Order of Malta recently travelled to Dublin to receive awards recognising 10 years of service.

Ian Gallagher, Imelda Higgins, Michelle Fielding, Shirley Hennigar and Eavan Dempsey were all honoured.
Ian is officer in charge with the Shannon Unit and he said they give assistance at a large number of events.
“We work to provide first aid at a lot of community events. We were at the tae kwon do championships at the weekend and were at the run for cancer. We do a lot of point-to-point events and we’d be at the Clare Stages Rally.”
As well as offering first aid, they also show other organisations some basics.
“On the training side of things we give classes to scout groups and other community bodies. We would help out with pilgrimages to Knock and at other times we would help to bring people with disabilities onto flights at the airport.”
Ian said Order of Malta volunteers come from a range of backgrounds.
“This is completely voluntary and all of us would come from different occupations. For instance I work in a call centre, Imelda works in a cleaning company and Michelle is a housewife.”
The unit have over 70 duties a year and have members ranging in age from teenagers to retired people. New volunteers are welcome and anyone interested can contact the unit by email on omacsnn@gmail.com or on 086 3850112.