Athlone community radio is currently producing a series of six programmes called “Heritage on your Doorstep” as part of national heritage week, August 21-29, and will cover such topics as architecture, archaeology, cultural heritage, and local wildlife. Two events being run in conjunction with this are a tour of Athlone town and an exhibition of children’s art, and both events are free of charge.
The tour aims to highlight some of Athlone town's historical and architectural gems, and is being given by Donal O'Brien, a local historian, author and volunteer with the community radio. The tour begins at Athlone Castle and runs from 6.30pm to 8.15pm each evening.
For the art competition, local school children were invited to explore their back gardens or nearest natural hedgerow and submit a drawing of what types of creatures they found.
The winning entries are from two schools, Ardnagrath NS, Walderstown (5th and 6th class ) and also St Pauls NS (senior infants ), Lyster Street, Athlone, and the winners Wiktoria Wilczek, Kamso Offoelo, Laura Ganley, and Elizabeth Moran received prizes kindly sponsored by Reeves Art Studio.
The winners of this competition will be invited into the studio to describe their findings and this will become part of the radio show. Also all of the children really enjoyed the visit from Athlone community radio to their schools where they actively participated in the recordings and these will also form part of the series which will be broadcast at the end of 2010. All the children who entered the competition received certificates of participation.
This is the first year the art competition has run and community radio is looking forward to running the event again next year. The exhibition shall be displayed in the Aidan Heavey Public Library, Athlone Civic Centre from the August 23 until the September 10. The overall aim of the two events is to showcase what amazing things that lie just beyond your doorstep.
