Water quality theme for Milltownpass Tidy Towns fun day
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Pooh Bear, Azaria Brennan and Garda Stephen Casey, Rochfortbridge.Image 2 of 11
Tidy Towns volunteers Aoife Lynskey and Wayne Wright painting children’s faces.Image 3 of 11
Ecologist Nuala Madigan making frog masks with some of the children.Image 4 of 11
Finn Geoghegan, Jack O’Shea and Emma O’Shea, 9th Westmeath Scouts.Image 5 of 11
John Fitzsimons, Emily Bote and Matthew Tuite from the Order of Malta.Image 6 of 11
Mark Nolan of Biodiversity In Schools.Image 7 of 11
Children enjoying their day on the inflatables.Image 8 of 11
Basil Mannion, project officer, LAWPRO, and Melanie McQuade, heritage officer, Westmeath County Council.Image 9 of 11
Milltownpass Tidy Towns river quality analysis on display.Image 10 of 11
Holding on for dear life at the bull inflatable.Image 11 of 11
Frank Moran and Christy Wright Senior enjoying the day.Milltownpass Tidy Towns hosted a family fun day in August to celebrate Milltown River and the work going into improving its water quality – which currently has a ‘poor’ status according to the EPA.
The sun shone as more than 300 people arrived at the GAA grounds for some activities including face painting, music, inflatable games and food trucks.
There were biodiversity workshops with origami frog masks, clay bird feeders, seed bomb making, scavenger hunts and other biodiversity related activities.
Members of the Tidy Towns committee hosted science kick sampling demonstrations on the river where parents and children enjoyed identifying the macroinvertebrates in the water.
The 9th Westmeath Scouts group were on hand making teas, coffees and treats for the crowd. Kinnegad Candys, Sizzlin Grill, DJ Sarge and the Order of Malta also attended on the day.
Tidy Towns committee member Aoife Lynskey said: “We were delighted with the turnout and the interest in the work we’re doing on Milltown River.
“This was our first year to do an event like this and we’d love to be able to do something similar next year if we can secure the funding again.”
The event was funded by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) and the Community Waters Development Fund 2022.