€30,000 is donated to local Tidy Town Associations as part of the new environmental initiative.
This summer Intel Ireland launched a new initiative, called the Pride of Place competition, to support environmental initiatives in our local communities by partnering with the Tidy Town Associations of Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth.
Garden designer and TV personality Diarmuid Gavin is pictured at the Intel campus in Leixlip
The competition showcased a variety of environmental ideas which were generated by the Tidy Town committees of each town who put forward three projects that would vie to be the winning project and receive funding from Intel of €10,000.
The general public were then invited to vote online for their favourite project and the idea which received the most votes would be the recipient of the funding. In addition, every person who registered their vote online was automatically in with the chance to win a €1000 cash prize.
On Thursday, September 10th, Intel held a special event at its campus in Leixlip to announce the winners of the inaugural Pride of Place Competition. The event was attended by members of the local communities and included a series of environmental updates, a guest presentation by garden designer and TV personality Diarmuid Gavin and an opportunity to meet with a number of representatives from Intel’s Environmental, Health and Safety team.
The evening began with a welcome address from Director of Public Affairs at Intel Ireland, Leonard Hobbs, who shared more information about the Pride of Place competition and how the program fits within Intel’s broader environmental focus. There was also a presentation from Intel’s Environmental, Health and Safety Director Mark Rutherford and the chance to hear about some of Intel’s new environmental programs from Intel engineer Richard Hennessey.
It was then the turn of Diarmuid Gavin who spoke to the audience about his experiences with community engagement and the impact of Tidy Towns associations, “If we begin to care about our environment and we begin to care about our communities, then incredible things can happen and all of you here this evening are demonstrating your commitment to the areas that you live in. It is a real joy for me to see all of the different entries to the competition".
It was then time to announce the winning project to the assembled audience and it was at this point that it was revealed that following the wonderful public response to the competition and the impressive standard of the projects submitted by the Tidy Towns, Intel would in fact award funding of €10,000 to a project from each town. The winning projects were decided by the thousands of votes which were registered online and the final results was as follows:
Leixlip
Label Leixlip – a project to label, describe and signpost a series of walking trail loops with Information panels being erected on prominent buildings/structures giving a brief history, unique features and local relevance of each.
Maynooth
Maynooth Big Belly Compactor – a project to install solar compactors and reduce litter in the Maynooth area which would enable more large sized litter boxes to be recycled using 100% solar powered units.
Celbridge
Celbridge Naturally - the project aim is to highlight biodiversity with the creation of a natural heritage information sign, a self-guided nature walk and a web page. The project will revitalise the community’s interest in and appreciation of wonderful biodiversity of the area.
Every person who registered their vote online was automatically in with the chance to win a €1000 cash prize and the winner of this prize was announced on the night as Carmel Madden who was also presented her prize at the special event.
The winning projects will now be completed over the coming months by the Tidy Towns.
To find out more about Intel’s environmental initiative visit www.exploreintel.com
