"Amazing amount of litter" being picked up says Carrick-on-Shannon Tidy Towns

Our Sunday morning litter picks continue at 10am, meeting at the Tourist Office. Pickers, bags, gloves and high vises provided. We pick litter for about an hour, then we meet for tea/coffee and chat afterwards.

We welcome new volunteers every week, and we are regularly joined by Ukrainian families who want to do something for our lovely town and to be a part of our community. There is an amazing amount of litter picked up from the streets each Sunday morning, almost half a big green bin last Sunday.

Our regular Arts and Crafts group continue on Friday mornings, in the Chamber Office. The group have learned to crochet, made a St Patrick's Day decoration, and at the last session we made beautiful cards.

The walking group meet up on Tuesdays at 7.30pm at The Chamber Office, we walk for about an hour or so around the town.

We have only a few more weeks to go until our 'Tuesday Task Evenings' start up again when the time changes and the evenings are bright.

Work will start in earnest on the Biodiversity Garden the Saturday after the Bank Holiday Weekend. We got an AXA Biodiversity grant so we are going to plant a mini forest of native trees as well as plants for pollinators, fruit trees and bushes. Details to follow.

Tidy Towns Volunteers joined in the Fairtrade Parade on Monday morning, March 7, as part of Fairtrade Fortnight to raise awareness of buying Fairtrade products such as bananas, tea, coffee and chocolate to help farmers and producers get a fair price for their organic goods.

It was a pleasure to meet Innocent Owomuhangi, a tea producer from Uganda. The parade started at Kelly's corner and over 200 children from local schools joined in, then everyone met up in the Market Yard Centre to hear about Fairtrade.

We have to mention that the students and pupils were fantastic in their enthusiasm with posters, signs and banners.

Volunteers Phil and Connie made a special presentation to Sr. Nora Burke who is the power house behind Fairtrade in Carrick-on-Shannon.  Music, singing and dancing followed. The slogan is 'Be Fair Do Sustainable.'

Volunteers were treated to a wonderful night in the Landmark Hotel courtesy of Ciaran Kelly and his colleagues. We enjoyed the best of food and wine.

If shopping in Tesco over the next few weeks, please use your blue tokens to support Carrick Tidy Towns, so we will get a share of the community fund.

Tidy Towns Volunteers are looking forward to the St Patrick's Day Parade and are busy planning and having fun with the preparations for our entry. The Parade starts at 12.30pm, and the theme is “We are Better Together.”

The application form for the competition will soon be issued, so that will be a project in itself. We did so much work with so many great community projects in the past year but now we have to write them up, much like homework, we would rather be out and about working and cleaning!

We were disappointed to be asked to remove our art work from the green area beside the pedestrian crossing. We thought it brought some colour and cheer to the space ,even added some personality to Carrick-on-Shannon, hopefully a compromise can be reached.

If you would like to get involved please get in touch via Facebook.