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2^nd year students at St Brigid’s Presentation Secondary School in Killarney organised and carried out a project on reducing waste and pollution locally. Yvonne Quill from Killarney Tidy Towns kindly accepted an invitaion and gave up her time to be a guest speaker at the school. Ms Quill’s talk gave students a better understanding of the wide range of work volunteers in KTT do to better our local area and environment but also it helped raise awareness of the diverse programmes they are involved in, the challenges they sometimes face and how young people can help to create a better future.

Inspired and motivated by our guest speaker, as well as the recent County Clean-Up, students decided to be pro-active and put what they had learnt into action. The girls took part in a two-hour clean up at the Killarney National Park. Park Ranger, Mr O’Neill, was extremely helpful on the day with guiding students to problem areas and offering words of advice. Students have seen the consequences anti-social behaviour can have and how littering can have such a devastating impact in areas of natural beauty. They felt it was a great learning experience, helping to enforce their attitude towards the reduction of waste and the protection of the environment. After 2 hours students had filled 15 bags.