Newsletter 08 December 2024

Sunday Morning

On Sunday morning we had 33 Volunteers out for our Weekly Litter Pick and 11 Transition Year Students including our latest TY Student Aimey.

We managed to cover a huge area in the space of an hour.

We managed to get a lot of the Regional Park covered as well.

Pat collected 12 bags in total which included a bag from the daily litter picks and also a bag of glass bottles.

It also included the bag of cigarette butts and gum from the Butt and Gum Bins. The amount collected from these bins continues to increase and we are very Thankful to those who continue to uses these bins.

It makes such a difference.

TY Planting

On Sunday morning our Transition Year Students under the guidance of Denis were busy working on planting bulbs and tidying up the flower bed under our Entente Florale Medal at the entrance to Castlewest Shopping Centre.

They did an amazing job and the fruit of their work will be seen in the weeks ahead.

Busy Monday

On Monday morning Gay, Keith and Sunday spent the morning cleaning wet leaves on the footpath down to the GAA Club and the entrance to Cois Na Coire Estate. The. Footpath was definitely much safer after the lads removed 4 tonne bags of leaves which were recycled. The lads then turned their attention to the footpath between Scoil Barra and the Church of Christ Our Light where they collected one tonne bag of very wet leaves which were not suitable for composting.

A busy morning and much safer footpaths as a result of their work.

Monday Meeting Treats

On Monday night we held our last Committee meeting for 2024 at The Oriel House Hotel and we had a full agenda to get through.

Before the meeting started we were presented with an absolutely amazing selection of treats by local company Lusso to celebrate our National Tidy Towns wins. What a beautiful selection and our committee were very grateful and made short work of the treats. We thank The Team at Lusso.

Scoil Eoin Visit

On Wednesday morning we visited Scoil Eoin to meet the School’s Green Committee and the Student Council.

What an incredible experience this visit was and we were delighted with the very warm welcome we received.

After refreshments in the Staff Room we met with the students in the Library. There they asked us excellent questions about Ballincollig Tidy Towns.

After this we were treated to a guard of honour by the whole school in the car park. An amazing honour.

This visit really showed us how committed the school is to helping our environment and their display of their Green Flags confirms this. Our sincere thanks to Ms Meaney, Ms Rahill, Mr Casey and all the staff and students who made us so welcome.

Eastgate Planters

This week we had a huge project to complete namely removing the 32 large planters at Eastgate.

This project was planned to be completed in the last few weeks on a Saturday morning but rain and Wind Warnings put paid to that.

Vince, Ger Keogh, Sunday and Keith did an excellent job in removing the planters over a few mornings.

The task was made more challenging because the planters were completely full with rain water.

They removed them all and brought them to the allotment where they were drained and emptied into Compost Bay 1

An amazing job completed and these planters have served us very well over many many years but in 2025 they will be replaced with new planters and hopefully the floral display will be as good and previous years.

Christmas Cheer

On Friday evening we held our Annual Christmas Volunteer Night Out in The Oriel House Hotel. 54 attended and this year there were 2 very special additional guests namely The SuperValu National Tidy Towns Tidiest Large Urban Centre Trophy and Ireland’s Tidiest Town 2024 Trophy. Both took pride of place on the night.

We would like to Thank most sincerely Ballincollig Business Association for kindly sponsoring the wine for the tables. A lovely gesture which was well received by all our volunteers.

The hospitality, service and food was excellent and great to Janice, Michael and all the Team at The Oriel.

Westgate Visit

On Tuesday morning our volunteers were kindly invited to Westgate Foundation for a cuppa and treats to celebrate Ballincollig’s recent All Ireland Wins in the SuperValu National Tidy Towns. We were treated to an incredible welcome and an even more amazing spread of home cooked cakes by the wonderful staff at Westgate.

Sr Augustine ensured that we had the best china ware on the morning.

CEO Julie Murphy welcomed BTT to Western and thanked them for all their work and how proud they were of BTT. She also thanked us for the assistance we give to them and how grateful they are for this.

Maura and the catering team made a beautiful cake for us to mark the occasion.

We were delighted with this invite and the hospitality we received.

We have really enjoyed working with Westgate and look forward to more in 2025.