Fifty eight Cashel and Emly students receive Pope John Paul II Awards

Fifty-eight students from across the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly received the Pope John Paul II Award this week in The Anner Hotel, Thurles.
The award recognises the generosity of young people who, over this past year, have volunteered from between 16 – 56 hours of service in their parish and community.
This is the second year of the awards in Cashel and Emly diocese. This year, three students received a platinum award known as the Papal Cross. Heather Ryan and Aoife Meagher of Moycarkey-Borris-Littleton parish and the Ursuline Secondary School in Thurles; and Fergus English of New-Inn-Knockgraffon parish and Cashel Community School were honoured for 56 hours of service in their parish, school and wider community as well as completing an extra project-type activity.
Aoife, Heather and Fergus travelled to Lourdes as part of the diocesan pilgrimage youth group where they helped the assisted pilgrims to have an enjoyable and memorable trip. Aoife and Heather are both members of the Moycarkey Borris Littleton Folk Group which performed two songs at the Awards night.

Thurles CBS students with their awards.

Fergus spoke on behalf of all the young people who received the award.
The special guest on the night was former Tipperary hurler, Paddy Stapleton, who address the audience and presented the awards. Paddy made a deep impression on the young people with his honesty. He told them that he was deeply impressed by the fact that in their teenage years these young people had already developed an impressive social consciousness. When he was their age, hurling was his whole world. Growing up, he never saw himself as one of the elite – someone like a Joe Canning, Padraig Maher, or TJ Reid. He had to work hard, inch by inch but always with a firm belief in what he was doing. It was only much later that this social consciousness grew in him.
After winning an All-Ireland with Tipperary in 2010, he attended different fundraisers and charity events. In recent years, Paddy’s own fitness club undertook a fundraiser for Suir Haven in Thurles. When he called in to Suir Haven, he was really struck by the people who volunteered there. They hold down regular jobs like everyone else. After work, they give their time freely in the evenings in Suir Haven. They are unsung heroes in our community. Finally, Paddy told the young people how this social consciousness really struck home with him, in recent months when news broke of his own sister Amanda’s illness – how so many people stepped forward to help in numerous different ways. He told of how something that started small, snowballed into a growing number of people who helped to make last weekend’s fundraiser for Amanda in Borrisoleigh one of the most memorable nights in the village’s history.
His main message for the Award recipients is that what we give out comes back to us in some way. If we continue to be generous with our time and talents, that will come back to us when we, in our turn, need it.
Nora Fitzgerald, a teacher in St. Anne’s Secondary School worked with girls who received the Award. This is the first year that St. Anne’s got involved and Nora worked together with Fr. Eugene Everard in Tipperary Town to provide opportunities for the girls to earn their Award. It was clear from Nora’s words that she was very proud of what the girls had achieved over the year – they had worked well together and there was great mutual respect between teacher and students.
Finally, a word of appreciation mus tgo to Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, the patron of the awards and to the Knights of Columbanus who have promoted these Awards throughout the country over the last thirteen years.
The Knights were represented on Thursday by their Supreme Warden, Brother Michael Keogh who gave some background to the growth of the Awards.

Archbishop Kieran expressed his hope that this engagement would not be the end but rather the beginning of a life-long engagement with their parish, community and the wider world. In working together, we find strength in one another and a deeper spirit of togetherness in facing the tasks that life throws at us.
Archbishop Kieran mentioned in particular the urgent task that is addressed to our generation in the ‘cry of the earth’ and our collective responsibility for the world around us. We give thanks that this committed group of young people have show themselves willing to respond to the needs of their communities. They have demonstrated a developed social consciousness.
They have earned the accolades which they received on Thursday last.

We hope and pray that these Awards constitute a stepping stone to greater things ahead as these young people begin to look beyond the horizon of school life to the mark they will make in the world around them.
The Pope John Paul Award is enrolling young people from TY and 5th year for the coming year. Those who wish to sign up should make contact with their priest or local parish or through their school.
Fr. Vincent Stapleton of Thurles Parish promotes the Awards at diocesan level. Applications can be sent to the Diocesan Office, Cathedral Street, Thurles and information is available on-line at the Award website: www. thepopejohnpauliiaward .com