Community Radio volunteer’s work recognised with award
A volunteer with Athlone Community Radio has been awarded a Volunteer Ireland Award for her work with the station.
Kara Richards, originally from England, has been volunteering with the station for eighteen months and presents the weekly LiveWires music show at 5pm on Tuesdays, which showcases the best of local musical talent.
“The work involves contacting musicians and finding out what they’re doing musically,” Kara explains.
“Before Covid, that would be getting a local musician, ranging from younger people right through to older people, to come in and talk to me for an hour.
“They tell me their stories, and the history of Athlone’s music scene, which really is an amazing music scene,” she explained.
READ ABOUT ANOTHER LOCAL NATIONAL VOLUNTEER AWARD WINNER here
“Since lockdown, we haven’t been able to do all of that. But I’ve still been contacting people and finding out what they’ve been getting up to, seeing who’s still producing what and things like that.”
Speaking about receiving the award, Kara says that she was “surprised, but also not surprised, because Athlone Community Radio is such a brilliant organisation. The award really is for everyone in there, because without it, it wouldn’t be possible to show off all these musicians.
“The station has been so well organised this year. Although people are working from home, we can still do exactly what we have to do when we come in to record. It provides such a safe environment for people to showcase their talents.”
Kara believes that the people of Athlone don’t realise how brilliant the music scene and musicians here are.
“Athlone has low self-esteem, and a lot of the musicians don’t even fully realise how talented they are.
“The problem that I find with the music scene in general is that it’s more about people trying to ‘make it’. But here, the music is really pure, it’s people playing what they want to play rather than people playing what they think other people want to hear. The band The Driftwood Manor, for example, make some of the finest music in the world and it’s all local.”
Kara’s showcasing of smaller musicians goes beyond the station as well, as she runs a small record label, where she tries “to do recordings with people who would never be picked up by one of the major labels because they make ‘non-commercial’ music.”
Irena Cvetkovic, Manager of Athlone Community Radio, said that they are “thrilled that Kara was recognised with this national award.”
“In a year when we are celebrating our 10th birthday it just shows how not-for-profit Athlone Community Radio is dedicated to the community and is promoting volunteerism."
Kara was one of three awardees in the Arts, Culture and Heritage category of the Volunteer Ireland Awards, with other categories including Campaigning and Activism, Environmental and Animal Care, and a new category for COVID-19 voluntary work.