 from because there is a community celebration evening happening this Friday and it is in Austin Law Alton Gorda Hork and it's the Clowny Lee Community Awards celebration and here to tell us more too from the committee Katrina Kelly and Helena McLean ladies thanks for coming in thank you thank you great to be here who wants who wants to start and tell us a little bit of the background I think I like Katrina okay well look at this was an idea that a few of us came up with maybe six months ago we wanted to celebrate congratulate and valorize the efforts of all our many community volunteers that make up the entire community of Clowny Lee which stretches from Tory Island to beyond Falkara okay I mean a great idea you know they're vital in any community so somebody right I suppose that you shine a light on them exactly and there are so many volunteers behind every one of these groups clubs societies and organizations some of them may be charitable organizations some are sporting some are directly involved in youth services and youth coaching others are cultural musical but the one thing they all have in common and we've collated all of the information from up to 55 groups John and the one thing we found in common all of them have a fundraising aspect to them as well as looking after their own populations and another thing about it is that we see how much of a network they are creating for members of the community in Clowny Lee. Alina I suppose it's only when you start to do something like this and put on an event like this that you realize just how many groups there are out there yeah we have to be surprised we were surprised we actually knew there was a lot of groups doing a lot of good work in the community but then but then when we started going down then we actually have up to maybe 55 community groups and that's in Clowny Lee area alone and will all 55 be represented on the night? There's going to be at least 53 so it's brilliant and it's great for the community to see what every other group is doing and we're all going to learn from the night we're all going to see what everybody or whatever other group is doing and I suppose as well as we're looking at maybe we'll be able to form a database so that when everybody else comes into the community this is exactly what's happening within their own community and these groups you can't happen to. So Katrina you've spread the network yet you haven't confided to one particular area because as you said there they're sporting groups and to charitable groups and really a complete across the board mixture. Exactly and it has been such an encouraging and enjoyable activity collating the work of all of those groups and I just got one email in this morning from a member of the Clowny Lee Anglers Association who were doing phenomenal work in protecting the vital ecosystems and habitats that are in the rivers and he said to me in the email it's good for a community to hold a mirror up to reflect all the good and many things that it can celebrate and take pride in and I suppose that reminds us of why we're doing this and again we want to stress this is a snapshot in time of it's like an audit of all that's happening in our community at the moment and we remember very very fondly at this time past members as well as present members of all of the groups and we invite them to to recognize within their own groups all of that their communities have done to bring them this far. I suppose when you're going down through the groups and you realize and you sort of dip in and do a bit of research that you realize that the work that they do behind the scenes and how much in a way we all take them for granted. Yeah and I think this is where I suppose I'm going to give credit to Katrina actually that came up with this idea first they think about doing this here and it was coming from that angle that there are so many groups out there they're doing this work voluntary they don't look for any attention they don't look for credit they just go on and they do it from day to day you know you're talking to St. Vincent Paul you're talking about all these groups that are out there they do to give up the time you know and behind every community group there's a voluntary board you know they come out in the evenings seven o'clock in the evenings they're heading into meetings to make sure that this work is done you know and they're working behind the scene and they're doing it on a voluntary basis. And then trying to gather money as well to raise money to you know pay the expenses and to keep it going. It is and it's expensive and funding is not easy to get we're all depending on to the same pond you know I suppose again we have to thank our own funders that actually helped us to get this event up and running because without without the funding we wouldn't have been able to manage or to be you know to celebrate. And you managed to secure a lead sponsor. We did thank you. I suppose when we began this journey I was at a meeting at which happened to be councillors John Hamish O'Farray and councillor Michael McLeafarty and they straight away offered their support for this event and it was thanks to them that we got the courage to run with it and apply to Donnie Gull County Council members fund and they were forthcoming with a very very nice basis for which to give us great foundation. Udhris Nagyelthukta came along, Donnie Gull Volunteer Centre and finally just today now we have Energia Sharkt in the Gaelike and they were they're happy to be associated with with this event because it is happening in our Gaelthukta area and we're so proud of our Irish language and we recognise all of the work that has been done in our area through many of these groups efforts to to foster and develop the Irish language. And relatively speaking it's a small area and yet there's 55 groups now a lot of them have a bigger imprint around the the wider north-west region maybe elsewhere in the country but nonetheless 55 groups active in that one area. And we made sure we kept it within Clohon Ely because it wouldn't be fair to go outside that border you know and we kept it within that there you know so and it's going to be a bilingual event as well because we are in the heart of the Gaelite. Is it going to be an annual event? Well as I said recently there's a great there are possibilities there for more ideas going forward maybe the business community would like to replicate this event. I suppose we're learning as we go along out of this other other ideas will be inspired and other events will take place because people will be networking no doubt exactly it's an opportunity there for all of those groups to drum up new members and to let others know what they're about. I was just going to say like I'm I working in Lowe myself and I was talking to them and they were like oh this is something we might copy next year within the Rosses area you know so there is others looking on there will be others looking on and that will you know they would see how this event went and they could see how things go from there because I know there's celebration a county-wide celebration but no harm in bringing it down further and you know and bringing it down to a locality in this case Cloughaneely. So anyhow it is Friday night it's an Austin Law Alton and the Cloughaneely Community Awards celebration and entry tickets availability? Well we've had all of our all of our people our nominees from all of the groups have all responded we have a packed house now at the stage okay and we thank all of the members of all of the committees who got back to us with their numbers and looking forward. Yeah well it's up to be a great night and who knows what you know where the future lies maybe maybe it will become manual or if you know who knows what might come off it. Thank you both very much. Thank you very much thank you.