Summerhilll girls crowned Young Environmentalists

Green teens from St Joseph's College, Summerhill, Athlone, were yesterday (Tuesday) evening crowned the 2012 Overall Senior ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalists of the year for their 'Wormery Works' project. Moate Community School also picked up an award at the 13th annual ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Finalists Showcase and Awards Ceremony held in the Round Room of the Mansion House, in Dublin yesterday, winning the senior water pollution category award for their project 'Stop the Pollution, Find a Solution'. The girls from St Joseph's won the prestigious competition after introducing a worm composting system in their school. Their project was used to reduce the amount of food waste leaving the school and to produce quality compost for the school's organic garden. A wormery box and worms were purchased from a grant received from Roscommon County Council and this was set up in a suitable location within the school grounds. The group studied how worms break down organic matter and applied this learning in practice. Thanks to their winning worms and inspiring awareness raising activities, this group is reducing waste in their school, supplying their organic garden with compost and setting an excellent environmental example for their peers and the public. Over 600 young people from all over the country attended yesterday's event in the Mansion House, along with special guests Minister for Children Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald, Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague and the youthful master of ceremonies - RTÉ presenter Stephen Byrne, RTÉ. Along with the overall winners, over 20 other awards were presented including category winners in Biodiversity, Water, ECO-Community Development, ECO-Enterprise, ECO-Art and Design and Climate Change. Special Awards were presented to ECO-UNESCO Clubs, to Super junior groups (10-12yrs), to ECO-Leaders (teachers & youth leaders) and to youth and community organisations through the ECO-Sustainability Award. With young people from all over Ireland and Northern Ireland, the event featured 60 lucky groups who were selected for the finals from almost 4,000 young people throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland at regional 'Dragon's Den' style ECO-Dens. Each group showcased innovative elements of their environmental action projects which included fun and friendly nature trails; up-cycled fashion, fracking research, eco-cartoons, original environmental songs and even a pedal powered smoothie machine! Preceding the official awards ceremony, the public was invited to visit the colourful showcase where the Young Environmentalists were present to share details about their ECO-Action project. The ECO-UNESCO team also provided exciting green-themed activities including creative recycling workshops, a Rio+20 Zone where young people explored their ideas about the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development and an ECO-Talent Zone where visitors were entertained by inspiring youth performances. "I am extremely impressed by all the young environmentalists participating in this year's awards," said Elaine Nevin, National Director of ECO-UNESCO. "All of the young people have shown tremendous creativity and innovation in their approach to protecting the environment and promoting environmental awareness among their peers, their schools, youth groups and the community as a whole. We have received high quality projects and we are delighted to run this programme to recognise and reward young peoples achievements." President Michael D. Higgins said: "It is heartening to witness the levels of interest and passion exhibited by so many young people in the future of the environment that we all share. This is an area of tremendous importance and it is reassuring that the motivators and leaders of tomorrow have such a collaborative ethos and have displayed such energy and innovation." The annual awards programme run by ECO-UNESCO, Ireland's environmental education and youth organisation, recognises and rewards young people that carry out local environmental action projects. The programme has provided thousands of young people, aged 10 -18, an opportunity to take action and raise awareness in their own community on issues that matter the most to them.