Two of our Volunteers, Jack and Shane turn up every week and work on their “patch” the Inniscarra Road. They had previously volunteered as TY students while doing work for the Gaisce Award and had spent many Sundays litter picking.
LITTER PICK
Twenty-one Volunteers turned out with twenty Transition Year students last Sunday for the weekly Litter Pick. All the Volunteers and five of the TY students picked litter and they covered a very large area of Ballincollig.
One of these areas was from the West Village to the Town Centre which four TY Students worked on.
A total of twelve bags of Litter were collected.
Some Volunteers were out during the week and collected two bags of Litter, one bag of Cans and two bags of Glass.
Five further bags of Litter were collected, this time from around the Maglin Flyover, by Gretta Deasy, a member of Ballinora Tidy Towns.
The remainder of the Transition Year students were busy gathering leaves and cleaning kerbs in the West Village area. Eleven one-ton bags of leaves were collected from the grass at the boundary of the Maxol Service Station.
Fourteen bags of leaves gathered by the Residents of Carrigdene were collected on Monday.
Also, on Monday, two black bags and five one-ton bags of leaves were collected from Classes Lake.
Our final official Litter Pick of 2020 will be held next Sunday.
SOME FESTIVE CHEER
Following the Litter Pick on Sunday the Volunteers gathered on the Plaza to enjoy Mulled Wine, Tea/Coffee and Mince Pies. The Transition Year students enjoyed Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Cake.
This was the first time that many of our Volunteers had met and chatted with one another since March. It was wonderful to see everyone enjoying themselves like old times all the while keeping a safe distance from each other and wearing masks. Catering was done by The Plaza.
THE PLAZA LOCAL HER0 2020
Covid-19 has had an impact on everyone. Over the past few months, THE PLAZA has been recognizing Ballincollig’s local heroes. People were asked to nominate that one special person who ‘stood out’. “A special someone who has been a beacon of light and a shining example of inspiration and resilience. Someone who has been carrying out acts of kindness during these difficult times.”
When the nominations were in, the one person who stood out for the honour of THE PLAZA HERO 2020 was KITTY O’CALLAGHAN.
She is kind and generous. She has a smile and a wave for everyone. She does so much for her community. She has a positive attitude and always lends a helping hand.
Kitty is one of Ballincollig Tidy Towns Volunteers. Each day of the week she can be seen out and about doing her bit with litter picker in one hand and black bag in the other.
She is a friend to so many, a listening ear, a giver of advice. She gives of herself so freely.
A very deserving winner. Many congratulations Kitty.
SOME OF THIS WEEKS WORK
Every week through all kinds of weather, our Workers together with a couple of our Volunteers work tirelessly to keep Ballincollig looking it’s best. They manage to get through an enormous amount of work and their efforts make a considerable difference to the town.
On Monday morning our Workers delivered four one-ton bags of leaves to one particular woman’s lot at the allotment. She had approached our Volunteers on Sunday looking for some leaves to help the earth for her.
The remainder of the collected leaves were placed into Compost Bay 1.
There has been an immense amount of traffic in front of the Composting Bays at the Allotment over the past number of weeks resulting in the ground being all torn up.
Council Staff had previously been busy with the wood chipper. Jack Casey from the Cork City Council Parks Department in Ballincollig has provided BTT with some bark mulch for this area.
Our CE Worker John did a great job of spreading the mulch.
Adrian spent a morning edging near Parknamore.
John continued his work weeding the Westcliffe flowerbed.
