Athboy No Name Club's year to remember

Athboy No Name Club's annual meeting was attended by the No Name national development officer, Anthony McCormack, who said he was very impressed by the club's success, locally and nationally, the vision of the adult committee and the promising young members. Outgoing secretary Tina Growney outlined the club's many activities and outings over the previous 12 months, highlighting achievements including being named County Meath VEC's Youth Club of the Year Award 2009; regional and national winners of the 'Two Minute Film' outlining the club's activities, and Meath County Council's Pride of Place youth project winners. Activities included team building at The Zone and Loughcrew Activity Centre, Safe Driving with Drive4life, and a talk by Mick Finnegan, Meath County Council road safety officer; sexual health talks with Ann Moriarty, SRN; and two very successful arts projects, the 'Sense of Self' giant book, and the design of equipment for the Pucás and Potions Halloween Festival at the Fair Green in Athboy. The club also won a competition in the Meath Chronicle for a group party night at the Zone Activity centre in Navan and also collected €850 for St Vincent de Paul in a carol singing concert prior to Christmas. Other activities included first aid with Meath Civil Defence. Club chairman, Fr Patrick O'Connor, outlined the background on the establishment of the club in 2005 and emphasised the dangers of drug and alcohol use by young people and spoke of the importance of continuing to build the self-confidence and the self-esteem of members. The coming year, 2010, also promises to be a very busy one for the club. New promises have been leased at Bridge Street which will include a youth café with the support of the recently established HSE Jigsaw project which will give Athboy No Name Club access to a shared co-ordinator, youth and community workers and psychologist. Counselling will also be available through the Regional Drugs Task Force. An application for an equipment grant is being made to Meath Partnership for Leader funding. The club's 22 hosts and hostesses will have the support of the following committee members who were elected for the coming year: Chairman, Fr Pat O'Connor; secretary, Lynn Hanlon; assistant secretary, Bernadine Kearney; treasurer, Kieran Perry; training officer, Gillian Mahony; committee, Brian and Julie Duffy, Tina Growney, Jacki and Dermot Hopkins, Eugene Smith and Saoirse Timmons. The club is fortunate to still have a balance of €7,000 to draw down from the Dormant Account Fund for activities under the Peer Education Programme on the use/misuse of alcohol.