Athy Scouts do their bit for Crumlin Hospital
Neil Davis, Evelyn Khriref, TJ Davis, Jackie Eustace, Declan Byrne, Katie Byrne, Leo Davis and Ned Prendergast.
THE Athy Scouts have once again pulled out all the stops for the less fortunate, and have donated almost €2,500 and over 100 selection boxes to the patients at Crumlin’s Children’s Hospital.
The local troop has its den up St John’s Lane off Shaw’s car park, and will be celebrating half a century in the town the year after next (2027) and is now over 100 strong in members, supervised by 12 adult volunteers.
“It was the Cub Scouts Parent’s Night - those are the eight and nine year olds – and we also had an investiture for another seven members,” said local spokesperson Jackie Eustace.
“We also had nine members who received the Cub Chief Scout Award that night, the highest award available to a Cub,” she revealed.
“We opened in 1977, and Aidan Prendergast has been there since Day One!”
The naively asked how old this man is, and Jackie chuckled.
“Oh, I don’t know, and he will never tell anybody!”
She added: “On the night we presented over 100 selection boxes to Declan Byrne (a well-known local fundraiser for Crumlin Hospital) like we do every year, and he delivered them up to the Hospital last Tuesday (16 December).
“We also collected a total of €2,479 on the streets in November by the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.
“In fairness, the town of Athy is very good to the Scouts,” she said.
The asked Jackie what’s next on the Den Diary, and she explained that: “the Cubs are going to the panto and then McDonald’s in Naas on 2 January”, but that the bigger Scouts already had their day out at the Cinema in Carlow.
Jackie and her team of volunteers – some of them ageless -will continue to develop the youth of Athy and will all be well worth their half-century anniversary in 2027.
