Young people shout ‘bingo’ for intergenerational night of fun

A group of young people from Ronanstown and Neilstown held a very successful intergenerational bingo night in the Ronanstown Youth Service on May 8.

The Youth Service is based in Neilstown Village Centre.

“The young people of ‘IS + 2’ … from the Crosscare Ronanstown Youth service wanted to improve community relationships with the older members of their community who are frequently isolated in their homes. They are often afraid to come out at night to the local shops because of the amount of young people hanging around,” according to Martina Byrne, Youth Development officer with the Service.

Lorraine McGee is the other Youth Development officer with the Service.

“There are a lot of older people who are afraid to come out, there is a chipper, a bookies, a Centra, the group were looking to create positive relationships between the younger and older generations,” added Martina.

‘IS +2’ is a group of 11 young people of mixed gender, aged 15 to 16 years old, and are also Transition Year students.

“They did a lot of fundraising themselves, they got prizes locally, they were involved in preparing the food [and] they organised who would call the bingo, they made up their own numbers, instead of two fat ladies,” said Martina.

The feedback from the event, which was attended by 70 older people, has been “amazing”, according to Martina. “I would love you to see the feedback on social media. The old people said that the young people were a credit to their parents,” she said.

On the Ronanstown Youth Service Facebook page there is a video of the young people dancing with the older people. “There have been 1,500 hits on the Facebook videos, it was a great night,” said Martina.

The event started at 7pm and finished at 9.30 pm with music provided by Tony and Maurice.

Such was the popularity of the event that the older people have asked for the event to be run again. “‘We’d pay to come again’, that’s what the older people said,” said Martina.

However this will be dependent on fundraising, according to Martina. “Hopefully it will run near to Christmas, but it comes down to fundraising,” said Martina.

However, Martina was keen to stress that the event was “about the young people giving back to the community”.

“The event also provided new leadership opportunities for development skills led by the young people,” added Martina.

Martina was also keen to highlight the work that Eric Byrne did on the night. “Eric, our wonderful volunteer has been a wonderful addition. The young people adore him, he means a lot to us and the young people,” said Martina.