Local Gardai going above and beyond to deliver Christmas cheer

With Christmas, getting closer and closer, Gardai in Meath are making a huge effort to contribute to the 'feel good factor' at the end of a difficult and stressful year.

Navan Gardai were bringing smiles to people's faces this week as they helped prepare and deliver hampers around the area. There was lots of treats in the hampers and they thanked the Handmade Soap Company and the Meath County Council Keep Well programme for help with funding and treats for the hampers.

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Gardai in Ashbourne have also been busy delivering specially made hampers as part of the Council's Keep Well campaign and have been delivering Christmas cards from the children in the district to a number of older persons in the area. Anne Moore from Ashbourne Lions Club and Battersbys provided assistance in adding presents to the hampers.

Following on from his TV debut on the Late Late Show, young Garda Matthew McHugh helped out Trim Gardai this week.

Along with Garda Edel Dugdale he had a busy day being on the beat, doing checkpoints, handing out Christmas cards to the nursing homes and drinking hot chocolates.

"We were delighted for the extra help today, so thank you Garda Matthew," they said.

The Meath Gardai were delighted that the Eureka Secondary School's Home Alone Group won a Garda National Youth Award for 2020.

The Youth Awards celebrate outstanding young people and recognise the good work they are doing throughout their communities.

The Home Alone group launched a social inclusion programme that aimed to connect both young and old in the Kells community (and its hinterland) in February 2019. The 10-week programme sought to engage with older local people through various activities with a view to connecting the generations. It also sought to address the issue of loneliness and associated mental health problems.

The group was keen to pressurise government into allocating specific funding for community initiatives. Each week the group met with a group of senior citizens and did a range of activities such as cooking and dancing, arts and crafts, music and bingo, book day and how to use the internet and social media apps.

To the delight of the group and its mentors, the ‘Never Home Alone’ project was shortlisted in the top four projects nationwide in the Nation Young Social Innovators Finals in Croke Park in May 2019. The TY group has ambitions to roll out their programme so that every Transition Year in Ireland would adopt it as part of their own TY programme.