Wow! something historic happened tonight, almost 100 people attended the meeting tonight, facilitateded by Kildare Leadership and Kildare County Council. There were representatives of the Youth Club, Monasterevin Gospel Choir, Venice of Ireland, Recreation Centre Committee, CYMS/CWMS, Community Games, Housing Associations, individuals who have moved into the town in the last few years, all the schools, Irish Dancing and many, many more.

They began by indicating their role in the process, which was to bring togther the community, to understand the needs of the community and to put in place a plan to bring this together. They have the expertise and the experience having recently completed a projcect in Kildare Town.

The large attendance were broke up into smaller groups to focus on two key questions; Who and what needs to be accomodated in the community facility? What are the options regarding the location of the facility.

There were a lot of suggestions both for what was needed e.g. community creche, cafe, educational, drama and performance space, youth reach/club facilities, parent & toddler, meeting rooms, sporting facilities, indoor and outdoor and many other ideas.

There were a few locations mentioned, the site proposed for the recreation centre, in St Evins Park, the CYMS Hall, the old Ballykelly Football field, Moore Abbey and Mill Stream.

The next part was to accept nominations for the committee, again there were repsresentatives from, CYMS, Recreation commitee, Venice of Ireland, Housing associations, a person who has experience in an existing community centre. There was so much interest that they decided to defer the final nominations, and seek volunteers from various organisations in the town. The really want the group to reflect as many aspects of the town as possible. They may have to break the commitee into subgroups to accomodate the numbers that are interested.

When the committee is finally put together, they will meet regularly to establish the needs, and the potential locations. They will keep the people of the town informed by various means, including; newsletter, web site, forum, texts, facebook etc.

The whole emphasis is on a whole community involvement, with not such a focus on sport. There is funding available, up to Euro 500,000 but matching funding is required, either by means of a site, a property, also there is community raised funding required.

Thats all I can remember for now, if anyone else who was there can remember some of the stuff I have forgotten, please add to this post.

Sorry for the long post, its kind of a big thing, this is Monasterevin, nothing like this has happened in a long time. Lets hope that there will be a good committee, and they all pull together and can get this up and running with the cooperation of the people of the town.

There is a thread in the Monasterevin Forum for people who would like to add other information about tonights meeting. http://campbells.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=mon

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County Kildare LEADER Partnership is a local development company that has responsibility for rural development and social inclusion programmes in County Kildare. We are developing a 2010 – 2013 social inclusion action plan for County Kildare and we are coming to Monasterevin to hear your community’s concerns, issues and ideas. So please come along and don’t miss this chance to tell us what YOU think your community needs.

Evening Meeting 

WHERE: Monasterevin Day Care Centre

WHEN: Tuesday 1st June 2010 TIME: 7.30pm

PUBLIC MEETING ALL ARE WELCOME

For more information, please phone 087-7696503 or email emmab@countykildarelp.ie

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The Transition Students of St. Pauls Secondary School are presenting the above in the School Gym on 25th & 26th February.  Tickets available from the School Office.

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Weekly meetings are on Wednesdays at 8pm in the Day Care Centre. Postal Box for SVdP is on the wall of the Day Care Centre. Phoneline 085-7209577.
 

St Pauls Secondary School
Adult education opportunities for parents/family members of students attending St Pauls Secondary School Monasterevin. Computers for Beginners, Cooking/Healthy Eating, Art, Basic English Reading/ Writing skills, Basic Maths. Further details contact Paul Marron, Home School Community Teacher, St Pauls Schooh 045-525601 ext 27 or 086-8400666.

Monasterevin Parish Pilgrimage to Lourdes 2010
The pilgrimage will take place from September 17-21. Further details available shortly. Contact Mary Ryan 087-6822290 or the Parish office 525346.

Youth Club
Monasterevin Youth Club reopened on Wednesday January 20. 7-9pm in Parish Centre.
We have a lot of ongoing and upcoming projects and we need extra help. If you can attend two evenings a month and are interested in becoming a leader in our club please call down and see what you think call PRO Sandra on 087-1201545 or email monasterevinyc@live.com 

Bingo
The bingo continues every Wednesday at 8.30pm in Monasterevin GFC Pavilion.

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Congratulation to the U10 Football team who have qualified for the County Semi Final.

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A meeting will be held to discuss the future of the CYMS Hall in Monasterevin. The venue is the parish office on Tuesday next, 21 April at 8.30pm. The meeting will also look at exploring fundraising ideas to clear existing bills. A previous meeting in January gave a mandate to the trustees and the committee of the CYMS Hall to investigate the possibility of selling the property. The meeting will also address the issue of funding that investigation. At the January meeting Donal Fitzpatrick of the Monasterevin CYMS Committee outlined the possible alternatives for the future of the hall to those in attendance. “The fact is that to make the CYMS Hall, which is a listed building, fit for use of any type would require a huge investment. And the question of what use it could be put to that would repay any investment that might be made is a hard one to answer. That is why we have thrown it open to the people of Monasterevin,” he said. Mr. Fitzpatrick went on to add that the committee are starting from a position of debt of €13,000 which is owed to the parish and to solicitors for work done and the only thing of value in the hall is a snooker table which hasn’t been used for seven years. A guesstimate by an engineer suggested that a minimum investment of €500,000 would be needed to make the hall fit for use. He added that raising this amount of money would be a massive undertaking and suggested that unless a viable project was introduced to the hall which would make a substantial return on the investment, then the idea would not be entertained by any lending institution. After some discussion it was decided that the committee should investigate the possibility of selling the hall and whether the money raised from the sale could be put towards the proposed new recreation centre.

Youth Club

There was a presentation of certificates to those who have completed a course on volunteer youth leadership. The club also received a grant last week from Kildare County VEC of €1,500 to help towards the setting up of the club. The youth club committee held an information night in the town last Tuesday night to inform the public on where the project is at and to hear suggestions as to how it should proceed. Chairman of Monasterevin Youth Club, Pat Balfe told people that a lot of progress has been made since the project was first mooted last year. “A number of people got together on 18 November last year to set up a youth club and included among us were local Garda Billy Delaney and PP Fr Liam Merrigan. Since then we have all been garda cleared and we have all completed this training course which was run by KYS in order to ensure the smooth running of the club.” Mr Balfe went on to add that the group are starting from scratch and said that the €1,500 grant from the VEC is a huge boost. “We have secured the use of the parish office as our base for the foreseeable future and we are obviously delighted with that. However in the long term it is not the ideal venue going forward and we are looking to secure premises which we can call our own. It would be no less than what the kids of the town deserve so if there is anyone out there who has a building that we could use then we would be more than delighted to hear from them,” he said.

Mr. Balfe went on to add that the aim of the group was to provide a safe and secure, alcohol and drug free environment for the school going children of the town. “At the start we will only be able to accommodate 15 kids per night, but with time, we would like to expand it further to all students between first year and sixth year in the town. That is dependent on getting right building and the right facilities to put into that building. The club is open to young people who live in the town not just those who go to school in Monasterevin. Looking to the future Mr. Balfe said that the next step will be to look at the various suggestions which have been put forward for the club. “The kids will decide what goes into this club. A key thing will be the ownership of decision making within the club because it is their club,” he said. The public meeting heard that a pool table, a table tennis table, a play station and a TV and DVD player are among the items being considered for purchase for the club.

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The lotto, value, €2400 was won on Monday night by Anthony Hanlon. The numbers were, 5, 8, 10, 23 The winners of the €20 were; Christy Guiney c/o P Kelly, D & S Brett c/o D Brett, Bertie Flynn c/o M Heavey, Phil Donoher c/o M Heavey, Nuala Moore c/o M Heavey. Next weeks jackpot is €1,000

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There is a meeting to explore the potential future of the CYMS Hall.  The meeting is to be held in the Parish Office on 21st April at 8.30 pm.  All welcome.

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The Gospel Choir will be holding a cake sale on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 March in the parish centre after 7.30pm, 9am and 12 noon Masses. A raffle will be held for valuable prizes. The Gospel choir will sing on Sunday, March 29, at 12 noon Mass.

Monasterevin Library;
The closing date for the Easter bunny art competition is April 4th. Entry forms are available from the library.

Monasterevin AFC Soccer Club;
Senior training every Wednesday and Friday at Togher road. All welcome. Ring John at 086 8377375 for further details. Lucky 15 winner John Kaye.

Lady runners and walkers;
Any ladies up for participating in the Women's Mini Marathon on Monday, June 1, and help raise funds for Special Olympics Ireland. For a sponsorship pack call 085 162 6084 or 059 863 4642 or email kildare@specialolympics.ie

Charity Walk;
Donncha 0’Dulaing the esteemed broadcaster comes to Monasterevin on Sunday, April 5, for an historic charity walk around the 15 bridges of the town, traditionally known as the Venice of Ireland. This is in aid of funds for a very needy family in Bosnia. Ms. Patricia Keane, director of Rebuild for Bosnia organised the services of the affable RTE broadcaster.

Parish Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help;
This held every Wednesday for Lent in the Parish Church ND has drawn large attendances from the parish and surrounding areas. Next week’s speaker will be RTE broadcaster, Micheal O Muricheartaigh.

Parish Pilgrimage to Holy Land 2009;
Please note change of dates, 28 September to 7 October (9 nights ) Travel is ex-Cork direct to Tel Aviv . Cost is €1,354, accommodation in twin rooms sharing on half-board basis, dinner and breakfast. Places still available, contact the Parish office 045 525346 as soon as possble.

Monasterevin Credit Union
The latest car draw will be held on Thursday, April 9, at 5.30pm in the office. Any member not already signed up for the draw, please contact 525838 for details.

Local Draws and Lottos

Monasterevin GFC weekly draw results;
€150 Breda Kelly, seller’s prize, N. Harrison, €50 M. McCabe, M. Colgan, G. Kelly.

Parish Lotto;
Numbers drawn on 16 March 09, 13, 17, 23. Jackpot not won. Winners of €20 C. Quinn, C. Byrne. C. Byrne, E. O’Donoghue, J. Kaye. Jackpot now €2,200.

Ballykelly GFC & Community Council Development lotto draw.
Numbers 16 March 01, 12, 20, 24. Jackpot not won. €20 J. Weldon, L. Dowling, A. Nea, T. Byrne, S. O’Rourke. Jackpot now €2,600.

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