Kilkenny County Council
Mayor Welcomes the Picker Pals to Kilkenny City
Mayor Welcomes the Picker Pals to Kilkenny City
The Mayor of Kilkenny City is excited to announced his inaugural environmental initiative, the roll out of Picker Pals. Teachers of 1st class in all city primary schools will be invited to become involved this September in this fun environmental activity programme. Through fun stories and songs and a special pack containing everything needed for litter-picking, Picker Pals motivates children to lead litter-picking adventures with their families.
Mayor Andrew McGuinness met with Angela Kenny and Patrick Jackson of the Picker Pals programme to learn more about the programme and everyone was curious of Patrick’s cape. His cape was decorated with curiosities recovered from litter picks and perfectly illustrates how the environment can be littered with the strangest of items. The Picker Pal programme will provide an opportunity for 1st class pupils and their families to go on their own litter picking adventure and the programme is linked with curriculum with classroom supports provided during the academic year by the Picker Pal Progamme which is operated by the environmental charity, VOICE Ireland.
The Mayor commented “The world faces a global crisis of waste in the environment. Every part of the natural world is affected. We urgently need to find real, practical solutions to this crisis. Raising awareness and taking real action are essential parts of the solution. Picker Pals does just this and I’m excited to introduce this programme into Kilkenny City as it gives young people the tools and positive motivation to develop stewardship of their local environments”.
Picker Pals is delighted to be launching the programme with the Mayor “It is vital we instil a sense of environmental stewardship and appreciation in children at an early age. Picker Pals does a great job of doing this in a fun way that children enjoy. I know schools will love the programme and will have a good time playing their part in keeping Kilkenny beautiful”. said Angela Kenny, Programme Manager of Picker Pals.
The Senior Executive Officer in the Environment Section of Kilkenny County Council was also present at the launch, “our staff have been working over the summer with the Mayor and Picker Pals to make the roll out of Picker Pals a reality. This programme has great potential to raise awareness about litter in communities, Kilkenny County Council is delighted with its new partnership with VOICE Ireland and it ties into many of our objectives set out in the Councils Litter Management Plan 2021-2023 and our Education and Awareness Strategy which is led by our Environmental Awareness Officer” commented Anne Marie Shortall.
Picker Pals will be fully funded and free to participating schools thanks to funding from the council and also support from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, philanthropic and corporate donations. The Mayor will be shortly issuing invites to city primary schools to participate.
