MacUilliam Heights residents recognise work of people doing clean-ups in estate
By Aideen O'Flaherty
A MACUILLIAM Heights resident organised and funded an awards ceremony that was held in the estate recently, to recognise the work of locals who take part in regular community clean-ups.
Welcome Ojo moved into MacUilliam Heights in September 2019, and quickly got to know her neighbours and began organising regular clean-ups to encourage social cohesion and community spirit.
Paul Murphy TD, Cheryl Grimes, Welcome Ojo and Raumuas Lisauskas
Last week, 12 children and two adults, who are regulars at the clean-ups, received medals which were presented by local RISE TD Paul Murphy.
Welcome told The Echo: “The wider MacUilliam estate has problems with illegal dumping, so I decided to start a clean-up initiative when I moved into the new part of the estate in September 2019.
“I started organising clean-ups, and I printed out leaflets to let residents know about it and I linked in with South Dublin County Council, who provided cleaning equipment.
“I started to do it to encourage positive behaviour in the area, and to discourage negative and anti-social behaviour in the new part of the estate.
“The awards were given to recognise those who have helped, and to motivate them to do positive things.
“I felt like I had to give something back to the people who had worked very hard in the area in 2020.”
The overall winner of the awards was Cheryl Grimes, who has attended every clean-up with her family, and Welcome hopes that the awards will have a lasting impact on the winners.
“You can see the motivation in them,” she said. “I think it will make people more proactive in terms of participation.
“The awards went very well, and the fact that we were all able to do social distancing…it was very positive.”
Welcome will continue to organise community clean-ups, which she hopes will eventually become an estate-wide initiative, and she has plans for the awards to become an annual event.
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