This article is from page 29 of the 2008-04-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
WHEN it comes to protecting the environment, the youngsters from Mountshannon National School know that the best place to start is on your own doorstep.
That was proved last week when pupils from the school pulled on gloves, picked up plastic sacks and got stuck in to help with the town’s annual Spring Clean efforts.
The youngsters were given good example by their elders, who will- ingly came out to help the Tidy Town’s committee in carrying out a spring clean as part of National Sere Or (ee hemeelonieee
The smallest of the 80 pupils tak- ing part made a clean sweep of the school grounds while others joined their teachers and some parents in
cleaning up the harbour and the Ai- stear Park areas.
‘“We’re hoping to go for our school Green Flag later this year and this is all part of that push,” said School Secretary, Louise Moore. “The smallest ones worked around the school, picking up litter and cleaning up and the older ones went outside. We brought different sacks to sepa- rate the various items which can be recycled,” she said.
Meanwhile, the adults involved in the big clean up were busy in loca- tions all over the village.
The popular harbour area was given a facelift, with litter picked up and the area tidied. The Aistear Park, with it’s labyrinth, peaceful walks, seating areas and wildlife facilities also got the full treatment and cleaning groups moved on to the
woodlands at Forest Park and down the main street of the town.
“We wanted a general litter sweep- up and a tidying to have the town looking it’s best,’ said Tidy Towns committee member, Dave Mooney. “It’s an annual event and a great community effort. Mountshannon looks the better for the efforts of eve- ryone who took part.”
The scenic east Clare village took part in the Annual National Spring Clean along with many other villag- es and towns across the country.
The event is organised by An Taisce as part of Environmental Awareness Month and there is a special prize this year for the school which col- lects the most aluminium cans dur- ing the clean up. The final date for registering for the clean-up event is April 30, and Mounstshannon
groups were supplied with protective gloves, bags, recycling bags and pro- tective aprons.
But according to the An Taisce’s website “due to the largest ever amount of registrations for National Spring Clean ever, we have now run out of clean-up kits. If you still wish register and carry out a clean-up please do. But unfortunately, we are unable to supply clean-up kits.”