Milltown NS students help craft a more sustainable Athlone
Primary and secondary school pupils from Athlone and surrounding areas recently came up with creative ideas for improving the environment when they took part in the Arcadia Creative Climate Awards. In the weeks ahead, we will be taking a look at their projects and findings.
For the 2023 Arcadia Creative Climate Awards, pupils from Milltown National School, Rathconrath, sought to answer the question “is there something in your community that could be done in a greener and more sustainable way?”
These annual awards, sponsored by Arcadia Retail Park, aim to get local primary and secondary schools thinking about how to help our environment. The competition is run in conjunction with Cllr Frankie Keena's 'Junior Mayor' initiative, and concluded this year with an exhibition and awards ceremony at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) in Athlone in May.
Milltown NS's team comprised of Uzma Rasheed, Ruby Nally, Andina Walsh, Ella Kiernan, Sarah Noonan, Nollaig Finnerty, and David Badesha.
They said that “we all agreed on doing something creative regarding this topic”, and came up with the idea of re-creating a fully sustainable version of Athlone using Minecraft!
“We have individual pupils giving their views on what a more sustainable Athlone would look like. We have created sustainable schools, parks, shopping centres, housing estates, and hotels."
David's design for a sustainable shopping centre included powering the centre using renewable sources of energy such as biomass and geothermal energy, with wind energy to fall back on should anything go wrong. On the roof, there would be both solar panels and a garden. As well as these sustainable energy measures, David would ensure that “if there is any food left over from the shops that they don't want to waste on Sundays and Wednesdays, give the food to food banks.”
Andina's horse stables are concerned with animal welfare, and ensuring that the horses are well-cared for. “They have a patch of grass in their stable and the outdoor arena is also used as a field for the horses. All horses are properly groomed and taken care of so they are all as healthy as can be.”
The houses in Ruby's sustainable housing estate, The Arcadia Wells, are all powered by renewable energy and have solar panels. Lights or electric appliances would turn off when not needed. Nearby, there are public transport links to encourage people not to drive everywhere.
Uzma's laid out a detailed plan for a sustainable plaza in Athlone, which would include organic restaurants powered by solar energy, businesses engaging with fair trade, an emphasis on bin collections, rainwater harvesters, and a community greenhouse! Sarah expands on the greenhouse, describing how “the heat from the greenhouse is converted to electricity, using the thermoelectric systems, and helps heat houses and buildings.”
The hospital that Nollaig designed has lots of windows to allow natural light in and solar panels to allow their machines to operate in a sustainable way. There is also a relaxing garden outside with benches, flowers, and birds.
Ella's Animal Park ensures that the food for all the animals is “nutritious, organic, and healthy”, and that there are lots of green areas, “made of fully sustainable flowers and plants.”
Milltown National School won the awards for 'Most Creative Project” and “Best at raising Awareness of Climate Change & Energy Use.”
The founder of the Junior Mayor Initiative, Cllr Frankie Keena, sincerely thanked the schools who participated in the Arcadia Climate Awards event this year. “It was fantastic to see the level of confidence and depth of knowledge of the students on the subject matter as they explained their respective projects to the judges and members of the public. The student voice was just exceptional on the day,” he said.
Cllr Keena also sincerely thanked the Principals and staff of the schools for giving of their time to support the students with their projects.