Winners celebrated by Green-Schools & Irish Water at virtual award ceremony

I congratulate the three Galway winners in the Green-Schools Poster and Video Competition Awards online today, in a virtual ceremony shown on screens in schools and homes all around the country.
Participants were also treated this year with a presentation from the award-winning Cartoon Saloon. This year there were three regional winners from Galway: Lilou Schmid from St. Josephs NS in Woodford, Éilla Joyce from Scoil Naomh Fursa in Claran, and Sofija Stolareustea from Merlin College in Galway City. It was then announced today that Éilla was the overall national winner in the Senior Primary Category.

‘The popular competition focuses every year on a theme around water sustainability and is open to Irish primary and secondary students. This year’s theme was ‘valuing water’ which tied in with the UN’s water theme for 2021. Despite the disrupted year for schools with Covid restrictions and closures there were over 1,400 entries for the poster competition.
“I am very proud to have Galway well represented on the Podium with three winners and Eilla Joyce of Scoil Naomh Fursa Claran, Headford who was the overall national winner”.

“The imagination and effort put in by the thousands of students all over the country who submitted entries to the competition is truly inspiring. It is great to see how deeply these young people understand the value of water. They are setting a great example in showing how we can all play our part in safeguarding this precious resource”.

Irish Water’s sponsorship of the Green-Schools Water Theme is in its eighth year and in that time over 2,000 schools have attended interactive Water Workshops and Walk for Water Events. Last year alone, Green-Schools saved over 600 million litres of water. Green-Schools also runs a Water Ambassador training programme for students in participating schools and a Water Conservation Photo Competition for parents and students. Due to COVID 19 restrictions and school closures, the Green-Schools programme successfully moved much of its interaction online for the school year, with new content and innovative virtual events.
Photo: Eoin Feen, Jessica Lee and Éilla Joyce, Scoil Naomh Fursa, Claran, Headford, County Galway and Toni Bourke, Irish Water.