Nominees To Be Honoured at Volunteer Ireland Awards in December

From almost 500 nominations, 29 exceptional volunteers have been shortlisted for this year’s Volunteer Ireland Awards including two from Co. Louth. Ireland’s unsung heroes will be celebrated at a special ceremony in City Hall, Dublin on 7th December.

Each nominee has shown extraordinary dedication to help others, often taking time away from family and friends to give back.

Joan McAdam set up a Community First Responder group in Co. Louth. Joan has raised funds for the purchase and maintenance of five defibrillators, four of which are public access, available 24 hours a day and trained over 200 people in CPR. Joan was responsible for saving a young father’s life when he went into cardiac arrest at a football match and was saved thanks to the presence of a defibrillator. Earlier that day Joan had swapped out a faulty defibrillator at the stadium with a functioning device from a less populated area, in anticipation of the match.

Wendy Jane Vion is invaluable to Drogheda Animal Rescue. She makes daily car runs to Slane's vet to pick up or drop off sick animals. She takes all the information from each run and each animal and passes it on the other main DAR organiser. Wendy also fosters a number of DAR Cats. This involves caring for a cat that could be injured, hissy or pregnant. Fosters take time and effort, to help the cat come around. Wendy helps come up with fun ideas and events to help raise money for DAR. Her positive personality and passion helps to inspirer passion in others to help.

Commenting on the shortlist for the Volunteer Ireland Awards, Louth Volunteer Centre Manager Gráinne Berrill said “Thousands of people across Ireland volunteer each day, giving their time without asking for anything in return. In 2016 alone Louth Volunteer Centre volunteers have contributed over 35,000 hours to the community and voluntary sector in Louth. These awards are a chance for us to recognise exceptional volunteers like Joan and Wendy Jane and really celebrate volunteering in Ireland. Reading their individual stories is truly inspiring and we are honoured to shine a light on their work. Thanks to volunteers like these, Ireland is ranked number one in Europe on the World Giving Index for volunteering time and Louth should be proud.”

For more information on the Volunteer Ireland Awards 2016 or to read the inspiring stories of the shortlisted volunteers, see the attached document or visit www.volunteer.ie

Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes. No matter what walk of life we come from, we meet these volunteers on a daily basis and i think we sometimes forget what a great thing they are doing by giving up their time to do good in the community. You may think that #LensAHand is not for you - but I'll bet it is! Each and every one of us have been impacted by a volunteer.

Think about it for a minute...

• Do your kids play for a soccer, gaelic or hurling team? The coaches are volunteers!
• Have you attended a coffee morning, table quiz, charity car boot sale or charity dance event? They are organised by volunteers!
• Have you ran in, or watched a local 5 or 10k race? They are organised by and stewarded by volunteers!
• Have you ever ran an event in work to raise awareness for a charity? Then you or your colleagues have volunteered!
• Do you enjoy the clean streets, tidy lawns and colourful flowers in your estate and along our roads? Tidy towns groups and residents committees are volunteers!
• Have you attended the St Patricks Day parade? Organised by a committee of volunteers and stewarded by volunteers!
• Have you gone to any of the local agricultural shows or vintage shows? Volunteers!

I think you see where I'm going with this. The Lens a Hand photo competition is not just open to volunteers, but everyone who has been impacted by volunteers in some way. The photo can be of you, or other volunteers in action.

We want to put the spotlight on the variety of work that is done by volunteers across County Louth and we need you to show us your pictures. And besides, there are some great prizes on offer which have been generously donated by local businesses

Here are some examples from last year’s contest of the kinds of entries we are looking for: 

For Infomation on how to entry and to also see the list of prizes for the contest click here

For terms and conditions click here

We are really looking forward to seeing your pictures and thanks to the people who have already entered!

Forget Selfies, Get Selfless! #LensAHand