We should be grateful for the small army of volunteers in County Louth
LAST Wednesday night the community and voluntary sector in Louth was in the spotlight and rightly so, with the staging of the third Louth Public Participation Network Awards in the splendid Bellingham Castle.
The Public Participation Network (PPN) was established following the reform of local government and is aimed to ensure that communities in Louth have a say in local democracy.
Louth PPN has approximately 200 member groups from across the Social Inclusion, Community & Voluntary and Environmental Pillars.
Last Wednesday night the PPN hosted their third awards evening in which they recognised the trojan work of some of those groups in Louth.
Listening to the citations of those recognised on the night was truly inspirational and humbling as these groups give so much to their community.
It was apt that the awards were held in the same week as the Tidy Towns results which saw Dundalk, Drogheda, Ardee and Blackrock all win gold medals.
The various Tidy Towns committees around the county are one of the most public groups which fall under the PPN umbrella.
Their work is visible and you see the hard-working volunteers out litter picking and planting throughout our towns and villages throughout the spring and summer months.
During the glorious summer of 2018, I took to the bicycle to see a little more of our beautiful county and it was a common sight to see members of Blackrock Tidy Towns cleaning the Main Street at 7.30am on a Saturday or Sunday morning.
On one such morning taking a break on the sea wall and enjoying the balmy conditions I was soon joined by another cyclist and shortly afterwards we enjoyed a five minute chat with a volunteer from Blackrock Tidy Towns who was out with a dustpan and brush sweeping sand from the footpaths and using a damp cloth to wipe to down the benches surrounding the sundial.
Unseen by the vast majority of her fellow villagers let alone the general public, the volunteer was in great form, enjoying making her contribution to the her community.
A simple example of the unseen hard work which has delivered Blackrock the title of Louth’s tidiest town and puts them within touching distance of the national title won this year by Listowel in Kerry.
Tidy Towns groups are only a small, small part of the many wonderful and varied groups under the auspices of Louth PPN.
Some of these groups are focused on very demanding issues such as addiction services and other aspects of counselling and support services which we need in our community.
All are manned entirely or in the main by volunteers.
These volunteers go above and beyond the call of duty for their community. They do not seek any plaudits for their work but without them Louth would be a less attractive place to live. They add to the quality of our lives and make a real difference in our communities.