Scouting awards for locally based leaders
THERE were smiles all round from the scouts in Macroom as Joe Willis received a Scouting Ireland Meritorious Award for his service. The Lee Valley County Commissioner, Terence McSweeney made the award to Mr Willis.
Joe was chairman of Macroom Scout Group for 10 years and served as group leader for Scouting in Macroom for seven years.
As group leader, Joe spearheaded the major regeneration of the Scout hall building, with much support and donations from the people of Macroom and the surrounding areas.
In addition to the building project, he led the group in the implementation of Scouting Ireland’s new One Programme and the resurgence of the different youth sections, starting with the Beavers and slowly building up through the each age group every few years.
Joe is currently a leader in the Scout Section in Macroom with Deirdre Henley, Team Lead, Joe Cunningham and Ger McSweeney. Joe is a unit helper with Irish Girl Guides in Macroom, since its inception 40 ago, and is the current chairperson of Macroom Parish Pastoral Council.
The county commissioner also presented a five year service award to leader Joe Cunningham. Having come up through scouting as a youth and a Venture leader in Little Island previously, Joe re-joined scouting and fully deserves this award in recognition of his voluntary service to Macroom Scouts
As a voluntary group within the community of Macroom, the Scout group has received great encouragement and support from many organisations within the community and also very significant financial support from other bodies such as Macroom Parish, the municipal bodies, Macroom Urban Council in the past and Cork County Council and the Educational Training Board. IRD Duhallow launched a QQI Level 7 with the Institute of Technology Carlow recently. It will be the first time that a QQ1 Level 7 programme will be delivered at the James O’Keeffe Institute in Newmarket and graduates will be conferred with a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Early Childhood Education and Care.
Chairperson of IRD Duhallow, Mary Wallace said: “The Board of IRD Duhallow is very excited to welcome our first Level 7 in Childcare to Duhallow and importantly, with the support of our Skillnet programme, we have been able to subsidise the course fees down to € 2,000.”
Successful graduates will also be eligible for the higher capitation with the DCYA. This course is designed for those who hold a Full QQI L6 Major Award in Childcare and who are working fulltime in the sector with at least three years experience.
The course will commence on the September 3 and will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays between then and April, as well as six Saturday lectures. Applications for the programme will close on the April 2.
Application forms from louise.bourke@irdduhallow. com.