The School year ended on a festive note for the winning children in Mayo County Council’s Christmas Decoration Competition. Cllr. Cyril Burke Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council presented prizes to the winners of the recycled Christmas tree decoration competition at an awards ceremony held in County buildings last week.
Light switches, old plastic bottles, old CDs, egg shells, bottle top and corks were just a few of the materials used to make the Christmas decorations which are on display in Aras an Chontae until the new year. Hundreds of children around the County participated in the competition for primary school pupils, which aims to get children and their parents thinking about how to reuse and recycle materials that might otherwise be thrown away.
Speaking at the awards ceremony Sharon Cameron, Environment Awareness Officer with Mayo County Council said “Every year, I enjoy so much receiving the Christmas decorations from the school children and I am constantly amazed at their creativity – turning every type of waste into beautiful decorations – it really shows us all how much we needlessly throw away. This year we have received a beautiful array of decorations including Cribs, miniature Christmas trees and lots of Santa decorations. Visitors to County Buildings in the last week have being enjoying the display and there have been lots of compliments for all the children who took part”
Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Cyril Burke who presented the prizes to the winning children added his congratulations “It is great to see the creativity of the young people and it gives us great hope for the adults that they will become; I congratulate the children and their parents and teachers for making such a great effort in participating in this competition”
This year the parents of the children were presented with a copy of the “Stop Food Waste, 12 days of Christmas” booklet which is packed full of ideas on how to use them Christmas leftovers and help to reduce food waste.
Five County winners were chosen this year and many more children received special merit awards. The winning children in the 2012 competition were:
- Laoise Geraghty, St. Colmcille’s NS, Westport
- Nathen Blanquier, Behy NS, Ballina
- Amy Gaynard, Mountpleasant NS, Ballyglass, Claremorris
- Ciara Varley, St. Feichin’s NS, Cross
- Ewan Cafolla, Breaffy NS, Ballina
Congratulations and Christmas Wishes to all who participated.
Here are pictures of some of the fabulous and inventive decorations. Click on each to see a higher resolution photo:
