Carrick-on-Suir student wins second prize in European Lions Youth Ambassador final in Croatia

Carrick-on-Suir has achieved second place in the European final of the Lions Clubs Young Ambassador of the 21st Century Awards for her proposed community sensory garden that is to be created on the grounds of Carrick’s Heritage Centre.

Kendra Watson from John Street in Carrick-on-Suir will turn her detailed plans for the garden into reality next summer.

She will invest the €1,700 prize money she received for placing second in the European final in Zagreb in Croatia in creating the garden.

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She will also invest €600 in the project that she received from the Irish Lions Club organisation when she won the national Youth Ambassador final in January.

Kendra, who is originally from South Africa, represented Ireland and Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club in the Lions Young Ambassador European final at the Croatian capital’s Europa Forum from Friday, October 28 to Sunday, October 30.

She was up against seven other finalists with the other competitors representing Belgium, Germany, Italy, Romania, Austria, Croatia and Turkey.

Each had a community project, which they showcased in presentations and an interview before three judges, who marked them on their involvement in their local community, personality, leadership qualities and how they planned to spend the winner’s bursary.

“I am just completely blown away at how well I did. I am still trying to get to grips with everything,” Kendra told The Nationalist.

The former student of Carrick-on-Suir’s Scoil Mhuire Secondary School, who is currently studying at Yeats College in Waterford, said she will get “stuck into” creating the community sensory garden once she has completed her Leaving Cert exams in June next year.

The garden will be for people with special sensory needs and also the wider community.

Kendra, whose family moved to Carrick-on-Suir about seven years ago, wants the garden to be a place where local people can take a few moments out of their day to visit and enjoy. “The garden will be all about the five senses. There will be flowers and plants like lavender, spices and mint to smell; bees, birds and wind chimes to listen to and colourful flowers to see,” she told The Nationalist earlier this year after winning the national Lions Club Youth Ambassador Award.

She also plans to install a water feature, plants that are distinctive to touch like mosses and Touch Me Nots and plants you can taste like wild mint.

Stephanie Keating of Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club, who was in Zagreb with Kendra, said all in Carrick Lions Club were delighted and very proud when Kendra won second place in the European final among very strong competition.

She pointed out the projects of the other European finalists ranged from creating a hobby room in an orphanage in Istanbul to being part of an organisation that plans to build a heated and furnished area next to a hospital so oncology and palliative care patients can see their pets in Belgium.

Ms Keating said Kendra’s aim for the garden will be to stimulate and engage the five senses and allow the people of her community to connect with nature.

“She wants to support people with sensory needs, mental health issues, give people a zone to chill out and be outdoors.

“She feels this garden will benefit the general well-being of the entire community of her town.

“Kendra has now been given permission to start her garden in her local heritage centre. We congratulate her and wish her every success with this great project,” Ms Keating added.