 Now coming up at the end of the month there's going to be some cycling in McGee's chemist in letter Kenny. It's happening on Wednesday the 27th of the March actually and not at McGee's but in McGee's and it's called Spin for Olivia. The Olivia being Olivia Robb from Newton Cunningham who has modern neuron disease. Her sister-in-law Mary actually works in McGee's in the cosmetics department. You might have heard her on the odd ad. But Olivia's condition has developed where she now needs constant care with big changes in how she lives her daily life. The funds will go towards helping her family get adapted transport, medical equipment and accommodation in Dublin for her hospital visits there and the idea anyhow is to have an exercise bike in store that staff will keep moving for the full day. There's gonna be somebody on it for at all times through the day. That's the AM anyhow during opening hours. So there's some great hampers to be won in a raffle if you go long and sponsor the staff for whatever amount then you'll be entered into the raffle as well for a chance to win one of those great hampers. That's coming up on the 27th of March at McGee's chemist in letter Kenny. Speaking of McGee's well Jared McCormick is here not in his guys as manager McGee's but instead in his guys as chairperson of letter Kenny Teddy Towns because they are getting a new year new three-year plan together and having an open event in the Montereyville Hotel on Thursday of next week. That's the 21st of March and that would be at half past seven in the evening. Jared, I love you. Very good John. Thank you. First of all at the intro there at the cycle so do you know what's in store? Is this all news to you? No, I know about it. All right, but the girls really organized it all. It would have been public care divine or shop floor manager really put her heart into that and we wanted to do something for Mary's family for Olivia and everybody who's around McGee's will know Mary well. She's there a lifetime and lovely lady and we were all just so really brokenhearted to hear the news of Olivia and we wanted to do something sort of special and something a little bit different and a little bit personal. So they come up with this idea which we think is a great idea and we just would love for the public to support it and I would be thinking it's a lovely cause and we plan to have a bit of fun that day and to make it a pleasurable pleasurable event. And will you be doing a turn on the bike? I'm told I will be doing this. There you are. Okay. It's not just in golf. You have to do a bit of cycling. You have to do a bit of cycling. Yeah. Now at County Tidy Towns you have an open event and it's for a new three-year plan and I suppose like any Tidy Towns you have any successful Tidy Towns and this visit at the county has been very successful. Then you need to have a plan in place in this case. You've brought in a bit of an expert. We have, yeah. I think you just tried to paint a picture there is that if you really want to get to the top ends of the Tidy Town competition there is an expectation that you have a proper plan which has been thought through. So we were very lucky. We applied for funding from Donegal County Council and they very kindly give us full funding for it which we're very thankful for. So we appointed Billy Flynn from Flynn Fury Consultants. He himself, he works in the environmental field as a consultant but he also is a senior Tidy Town judge. So no better man. No better man. He has his finger on the pulse and he knows what we need but as he says you know there's no point like you know Jared you could have a plan that I could write and that you could tell me what you want to write but the reality is these plans work best when you reach out to the community and the community tells you what they want and it's what they call evidence based plans from the ground and that's the starting point of it. So we've been working at this for maybe a few weeks at this stage and we have a certain amount of the bones done of it but this is a very very important part of the whole structure is so I when we were organizing that to me the thought of running this community event hosting it would scare me no end and you know I said Billy very important that you know when the people come you you know you'll host it like you you'll look after it and he says yeah he says look he says if you get the people there I'll look after it then so this is why I'd ask you maybe could we come on could we talk about it and just to reach out to the public who people anybody who's in there in Kenny has an interest in their environment in Tidy Towns we just want you to come along and we just have a he Billy will host it and he will facilitate the whole the whole day the whole evening we think it's only going to take about an hour it starts at half seven we're conscious that people have busy lives so we're trying to get in the minute out and just to get their opinions so that we can create this plan and from that we then will use that to work at our we will use this as our signpost to work over the next three years. So the aim would be to come up with a plan that's developed in association with town people people who live and work in the town and and then driven by the Tidy Towns Association. That's right we that's right yeah so when we're reaching out to you know residents associations just the general public to business people to schools to anybody the whole fabric of the town it's completely open to everybody and anybody who's in interest and we will gather up that information and and make it into something tangible that we then will follow and move our way through over the next few years. And the awards are great and having success in Tidy Towns is great and it's really it's the result of a lot of hard work but what the really great thing is that when you you know you drive around the town and especially during the you know the peak tourist season in the summer months and everything is looking it's best but for that matter anytime of the year and you see a town that's generally speaking you know clean and very presentable and you know lovely beds that they're the roundabouts and just the town looking at best and that's that's what it's all about. It is it is and that's a collaborative effect I mean you're just describing things that what you see with your eyes as you're driving around in the summertime and I mean as you're saying that I'm thinking of all the things that have to happen to make that happen and it's you know starts with Glenard planting at five o'clock in the morning when everybody's sleeping and they're up sweeping the rows and you know we have David Donnelly and his team and some of those roundabouts that are in the state you know the beautiful Immaculate Presentation that they that we're so lucky to have every year and we have our community employment scheme which you'll see the men there Monday to Friday working through the Angraean Theater and they're keeping the town tidy and then we have Neil Blockley on the Sunday we see his army of people I mean we were looking I just got a text in this morning Neil had 55 volunteers out yesterday at 10 30 and yes on Sunday morning. Last some of them seemed to be more than ever and it was just great to see. Yeah and and it's it's got so big now at the minute that you know what we're trying to do is we're trying to get volunteer drivers in that we can get they used to be in the old days we would take them into the market square and they would fan out but we've had so many people we're trying to do now is trying to get them to extremities of the town to drive out there and then they walk back again which which gives us more of an effective sort of work work work program so that's what we're at this year but I mean it's it's it's really got so big that we really can't cope with anymore it's it's we're trying to manage what we have but I mean I would really genuinely like to thank all those people because you know it's voluntary it's there's nothing for there for people but just they want to they want to give back you know and you've got to be very thankful for that and a lot and a lot seem to be newer members of our community yes it is it is a lot of and they want to they want to help out and and it's great then because it means that as you approach the town that the approaches are all or if you're leaving the town or coming through the town that the environs are generally speaking clean and tidy because you know it's just it's a bad reflection on a time when you drive through it and and you notice the litter yes yes it's so it's it's great that it's generally speaking it's not there to see you will always find litter and fairness you know it's always there you know and we we try and spend a lot of time as well on litter awareness because you know if you can stop it happening that's even even a even a better way of doing it but the reality is it's a very busy time there Kenny I mean with the amount of activity in daytime and nighttime that goes on there and I mean for the amount of activity that happens in there Kenny we we have we have a good handle on it it's not perfect and it never will be but we we definitely feel we have a very good system in place and with all those sort of stakeholders I was describing earlier there's a lot of really good communication that happens so that you know for example we meet with the council every month and you know we communicate the problems that that that we see and you know and they communicate with us what what what what's happening on the ground and you know so there's a lot of stuff that happens and and but it's it's good for the town it's a positive thing hope what we can always do better and that's just the way it is well you know that's what this event is really about because it's important that a plan is developed especially when it comes to Tidy Town and you know as much as anyone you know what it entails to to be competitive every year so a three-year plan is necessary and you have a consultant on board so what you want is input from local people and find out you know what what do they want yeah and it's often more we've touched upon a few things there like you know litter control and flowers and how how how we present the town but in the Tidy Town's competition it's it's also broader than that there's an awful of a huge emphasis on for example biodiversity and how you know how our environment is in tune with nature yeah and that is a big big part I mean we've just finished a Angus Kennedy he's just just given us a three he's looked at three areas he's looked at Century Hill he's looked at the the Workhouse Garden and he's looked at the linear park in Balli Rain and he's given us a plan there to to look at the biodiversity of that area and how we can balance it better so I mean that will be going into our plan for sure and we also have a huge amount of focus lately on sustainability and we have a couple of new members who have come in there Elish Kennedy and Fiona O'Reilly and they have worked really really hard and we've worked with change makers and there's an awful lot of work happening there so the interest that we're reaching out to the public is it's not just about the how the environment looks but also how the environment is and how we react to it and how we can improve it in the more holistic view of it so there's a lot of strands to it there's a lot of strands in it yeah and there's different things for different people in it I mean we have people in our committee who who are interested in you know one part more than the other and everybody has their own different interests and I suppose you know myself and Brian we're both the co-chair of the Tidy Townsend and we try and mesh all that together and make it a you know the the pie hole and you know just around the circle basically there's room for them all at the table all without a doubt and that's the message that I would like to take out there to invite the public to come along it's it's you may have different interests you know the people in the room will not all have the same interest and we welcome them all okay so come along it's to the Mount area of the hotel it's happening on a Thursday week that's Thursday the 21st it's at half past seven and you won't be keeping them too long around about an hour around about an hour yes so it's a Thursday after St Patrick's Day is the easy way to remember it okay thanks Jared thank you john thank you very much get with the best virgin media