Golden Gaisce moment for Trim's Áine

Two years ago, Aine Kenny from Trim was involved in a serious accident that could have left her paralysed as she completed one of the challenges for her Gold Award from An Gaisce. Knowing what could have been made the award she received from President Mary McAleese last week all the more special to Áine and her family. Áine was one of 50 young people to be presented with the President's Award at a ceremony in Dublin Castle on Monday of last week. To achieve a Gold Award, participants set a goal for themselves in four different areas of activity - community involvement, personal skill, physical recreation and adventure journey. A daughter of Michael and Margaret Kenny, Áine started out life in Zambia and spent the next six years between there and Tanzania, before the family returned to live in Moynalvey. In recent years, the family moved to Eldergrove in Trim. She attended primary school at Moynalvey NS and secondary school at Scoil Dara, Kilcock. She also attended pre-school in a small local project at Chikuni mission, Zambia, and attended primary school in Morogoro, Tanzania. Áine spent the summer of 2001 with her brother, Patrick, in the home of the dying run by the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India. She went on to study a bachelor of arts (BA) degree at University College, Galway, and to complete a Masters in Criminology at Queens University, Belfast, graduating in 2008. Áine now works a school completion officer with the BEST project in Ballymun, Dublin, and is also a registered FETAC education award provider through her organisation, Community Consult, and is currently delivering a FETAC level V and level VI course in the south Meath area. Áine achieved her Bronze Gaisce award while in transition year, but it was a few years later that she, encouraged by her dad, decided to go for the Gold Award - and what a journey it proved to be. Áine volunteered with a youth group, 'Localise', which is a youth and community development organisation that directly engages young people in community work in their local areas. She also volunteered with St Vincent de Paul. For the skill section of her award, she learned how to play the piano accordion and, over the next year or so, Áine learned a new respect for the instrument and those who play flawlessly. Most people, if you ask them, would love to run a marathon. Áine set a goal for the physical section of her award to run six marathons in a year. However, events took over, but she did succeed in completing two - and both in very good times. One of the marathons followed a serious accident which left Áine wheelchair-bound for a short while and concerned as to whether she would walk again. The accident happened while Áine and her father, Michael, were undertaking her Venture Journey in Italy. Not long after starting out on their 500km cycle, they were hit from behind by a motorbike, and Áine was left her lying on the multi-lane road carriageway with a fractured spine. Her dad suffered a broken pelvis. It was months before Áine was back on her feet again and another year later before she and her father once more set off on Áine's Venture, this time around the Ring of Kerry. This time, thankfully, they achieved their goal without incident.