Outstanding volunteer effort recognised

Sixteen year old, Sarah Malone from Aghaderg GFC, Camogie & Ballyvarley Hurling Club, Co Down has been the young GAA activist to be awarded the Translink Young GAA Volunteer Award.

Sarah was awarded the April award following a nomination from her club for her outstanding volunteering effort in April 2017.

As a camogie player, Sarah gives back to her club through her volunteering efforts within the local Youth Club and mentoring U6/8s camogs.   In April she organised and ran an Easter Egg Hunt for local children at the club grounds with refreshments for adults at the event with over 50 children and their parent attending. This amounted to 21 hrs volunteering this month alone.

Chairperson of Aghaderg GFC, Camogie & Ballyvarley Hurling Club Dónal Ó Móráin said, “Sarah is a shining example of how young people can make an impact on their local GAA club.  We are delighted that her efforts have been recognised by Translink and Ulster GAA.  Her volunteering commitment is inspiring especially when you consider she does this on top of training and playing camogie herself and also in the midst of doing her GCSEs.  She never misses any event in the club.”

Head of Community Development at Ulster GAA, Diarmaid Marsden said, “We are delighted with the response we received to this new initiative in association with Translink.  We have many young people playing vital roles in their clubs on a voluntary basis and it is important to recognise their efforts.  I congratulate Sarah Malone on winning the April Award and I look forward to hearing about the contribution of many more young people to the GAA over the coming months.”

Presenting Sarah with her award, Mark Mullan, Assistant Service Delivery Manager, Translink said, “Young people like Sarah make an enormous contribution to many of the  local communities we serve, so we are delighted to partner up on this new scheme to recognise those efforts.   On behalf of Translink I’d like to congratulate Sarah on her much deserved award. I have no doubt that over the coming months, we will uncover many more dedicated young people – we look forward to hearing their stories and celebrating with them throughout the year.”

There was a very high standard of nominations from clubs for this April Award and we would like to recognise the outstanding efforts of all the young people nominated: Katie Lapsley (Glenswilly GAA), Laura Vernon (Ardoyne Kickhams Ladies GAC), Tiarnan McCaughey (Clogher Eire Ogs GAC), Aine Hughes (St Brigid’s Camogie Armagh), and Karl Brannigan (Bryansford GAA)