Thank Yous & Smiley Awards :)
April 2008: Mayor of Kinsale, Councillor Mary Evans
This month’s smiley award goes to the Mayor of Kinsale, Councillor Mary Evans, who was the first person to sign up for the Community Powerdown. Now there’s real leadership for you!
January 2008: Residents of Eltins Wood Estate
The first Transition Town Kinsale Smiley Award for Sustainability of 2008 goes to the residents of Eltins Wood Estate, who made the excellent decision to plant fruit and nut trees in their estate on Sunday 9th December 2007.
With the help of a very lively Santa Claus (singing while he worked!), Virginia and David from the Community Garden and a few members of TTK, residents and their children braved the cold, wind and driving rain to plant 4 apple, 2 plum and 2 cobnut (a variety of hazelnut) trees on the common green area of the estate.
Eltins Wood was built 4-5 years ago by McInerneys and they had kindly offered to sponsor this initiative. The trees were supplied by Pat McCormack, and members of TTK will provide a workshop to a small group of volunteers who will look after the upkeep of these trees in the critical few years after planting.
Transition Town Kinsale encourages the use of such trees in landscaping so that food growing becomes an integral part of the community. This is driven by the awareness that food will become significantly more expensive, unless sourced locally, as energy costs increase in the future.
2007
Much of Transition Town Kinsale’s work is about enhancing life in the community and much of 2007 was spent establishing links with other community groups in the town.
We are delighted to have worked with Kinsale Good Food Circle, the Town Council, St. Joseph’s, St. John’s and St. Multose Primary Schools and we look forward to working in the near future with Kinsale Tidy Towns, Transition Year students at Kinsale Community School, Kinsale Active Retirement Group and Kinsale Flower Club.
We would like to thank the following for their generosity and help towards TTK’s activities during 2007: Hamlet’s, the Lord Kingsale, Good Food Circle, Bandon Co-op, David Peare and Quay Food Company, Fintan Lynch, D & A O’Leary Printers, Bookstor, Bolands News and Bookshop, Stone Mad Gallery, Next Door, Curtin Electrical, Daisy Chain Florist, Mylie Murphy, Acton’s Hotel and Leisure Centre, Musgraves Ltd., Thai Cottage, Kinsale Bookshop, Subar, Kinsale & District Newsletter and Advertiser and Future Forest.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: FAREWELL AND :)
We are sadly bidding farewell this month, and awarding the smiley, to two of our members who have done some excellent work for TTK over the past year and more.
Dan Benn and Tara de las Casas arrived here in 2005 to study Permaculture at the Further Education College. They both became involved in TTK, Dan as a key member of the Steering Committee and both he and Tara as active members of the Food Forum. They set up and ran the Community Garden and the Education for Sustainability programme which went into the three Kinsale primary schools to teach the children about gardening and food-growing.
They both did most of the preparation work and organising of the wonderful Spring Fayre that took place in March of this year. Dan and Tara earned for themselves the love, respect and admiration of numerous residents in Kinsale during their stay here and they will be sorely missed when they leave in November.
We’d like to thank them for all their valuable contributions to our initiative and wish them every success in their new adventures and, don’t forget to send us a postcard!
SEPTEMBER: J MOSSIE O’LEARY :)
This month’s smiley award goes to Mossie O’Leary of D & A O’Leary Printers Ltd. Cork who printed up 1,000 copies of our new leaflet for free, zilch, zero, nada. Many thanks to Mossie and his colleagues and we’ll be taking all future printing needs to them.
AUGUST: Thank Yous
Many local businesses in town contributed prizes for July's Table Quiz event in Swell and we’d like to thank the following for their generous support: The Candle Shop, Mange Tout Delicatessen, Stone Mad, Daisy Chain Florist, Jim Edwards, Next Door, Miley Murphy, White Lady Inn, The White House, Fintan Lynch Hairdressing, The Greyhound, Finishing Services, Swell, Spirit of Kinsale, Acton’s Leisure Centre, Granny’s Bottom Drawer, Supervalu, Quay Foods, Book Stor, Fishy Fishy and Director’s Cut. Further thanks to David and Siobhan Barry of Ballintubber Farm, Alan Dockrell of Dockrell's Organic Vegetables, and Green Saffron for their kind donations.
Thanks also to Kinsale Further Education College for the use of a white board to keep the scores and to Oisin for a microphone lead. Thanks finally to all who supported the event.
Ananda Mann :)
This month’s smiley award goes to Ananda Mann, who completed the Permaculture course at the Further Education College this year. Ananda generously brought some of her tomato plants that she’d been growing in the College to be given away for free at the TTK stall at the market. Now there’s a shining example of a sustainable community attitude.
MAY: Fintan Lynch :)
This week’s smiley award goes to Fintan Lynch for establishing a FRE-USE notice board in his hairdressing shop window. The idea is that if you are looking to get rid of any items – furniture, electrical applications, books, utensils etc. that are in good working order and you don’t want to send them to landfill, you can advertise them free on the notice board. Just write a brief description of the item and your contact details on one of the cards provided. This is a simple idea that implements the ‘reuse’ environmental principle, finds a new home for your item and makes someone else happy. Brilliant!
APRIL: FOR KINSALE BUSINESSES SUPPORTING TTK :)
April’s smiley award went to all the local businesses that have supported Transition Town in one way or another. Bolands News and Bookshop, Stone Mad Gallery, Next Door, Curtin Electrical, Bookstor, Quay Food Co, Daisy Chain Florist, Mylie Murphy and Future Forest have all been generous enough to donate prizes for the raffle at our fundraising event in the Further Education College. Fintan Lynch Hairdressing gets a special mention for allowing us to use his shop window to advertise our events.
MARCH: Kinsale Community Association :)
March’s smiley was awarded to Kinsale Community Association who have now obtained planning permission for a community and leisure centre and swimming pool on a 10 acre site in Kinsale. The KCA has adopted as one of its key objectives to identify and utilise sustainable sources of energy to power the new centre. It is envisioned that the new centre will be a model for other new community and leisure centres around the country in energy saving technology as well as saving the community from the huge running costs of conventional energy systems. We also like their motto which is a quote from George Bernard Shaw:
‘I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.’
FEBRUARY: St. Multose, St. Joseph's Girls & St. John's Boys Schools :)
February's smiley award went to staff and pupils of three primary schools: St. Multose, St. Joseph's Girls and St. John's Boys who have all started up school gardens to grow food. This is an excellent move in the right direction towards growing food locally to help reduce food miles and dependency on fossil fuels. Congrats all round and good luck with the growing!