Congratulations will be pouring in after today’s announcement in Dublin’s Helix Theatre that a team of Castleisland Community College students and their teacher, Doreen Killington were named winners in the Climate Action and Air Quality Awards category of the national competition.
The students of the 2018/2019 term formed a Junior Tidy Towns Committee and undertook a major awareness campaign to highlight the importance of recycling and up-cycling as a means of tackling climate change.
Climate Action and Air Quality Award
The college committee was formed under the guidance of teacher, Doreen Killington and Castleisland Tidy Towns members, Sheila Hannon and Mary Walsh.
Impact of Choices
Members of the community were encouraged to improve the impact of the choices they make by recycling and upcycling items instead of sending unwanted items to land fill and wasting energy in the production of eg new clothes and toys.
The community was encouraged to donate toys and clothes for the Xmas Shoe Box Appeal. Scrap material was used to make soft toys for the shoe boxes and pieces of wood left over from Junior Cert and Leaving Cert projects were made into toys like spinners and cars.
Shoe-Box Record
A record number of 204 boxes were either donated or made up by the college committee in the lead up to last Christmas .
Students also made Christmas wreath decorations for every door in the school by recycling old decorations that were no longer being used at home.
The committee appealed to the general public for football boots that were no longer needed because of the new Astro Turf soccer pitch on the school grounds.
Only football boots suitable for the Astro Turf Pitch could be used and as a result many boot types were made redundant.
Kenyan Education Project
They were recycled and sent over to the charity organisation The Kenyan Education Project.
The school promoted FSC products such as wood, paper, kitchen roll. FSC or Forest Stewardship Council means that the wood comes from a sustainably managed forest.
The school itself only uses FSC wood and FSC recycled photocopying paper.
History Reviving Train
Finally, the model train located at the entrance to the car park was built to revive the history of Castleisland Railway Station using FSC wood.
The wheels of the train, the front barrel planter and posts anchors were all donated and recycled to complete the model train.
