9 February 2012 GAZETTE 13
CHARITY: CALL FOR ANY UNWANTED INSTRUMENTS
CHILDREN
Call for Texaco artists
Give kids a musical goal THE Musical Youth Foundation children’s charity is asking people to help it in its mission to provide every child on the island of Ireland with access to a musical education by donating any old, unused or even damaged musical instruments they have. As part of a new project designed to raise awareness for the life-changing benefits of music education, and the work the Musical Youth Foundation is doing, the charity hopes people will dig out old, unused, or even broken, instruments that are cluttering up attics, garages and other storage spaces in order to donate them to the charity. The charity’s founder and CEO, Chris Maher, says: “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of old, unused and unwanted instruments all over the country, and we’re ask-
ing people to help us give every child on the island of Ireland the opportunity to access music education by supporting our call for instruments.” He said: “We promise to find new homes for all instruments donated, and everyone who donates will be invited to a special, topsecret event taking place as part of the sixth annual Dublin City Soul Festival, from May 24-27.” Musical Youth Foundation provides instruments, weekly tuition, practise sessions and supporting workshops in live performance, including singing and songwriting as part of its “guitars for kids” programme, which is running in local community centres and schools in Dublin. If you have an instrument that you would like to donate, email saoirse@ soul.ie.
Turn to them: People in Dublin the largest group availing of a mental support website THEIR cardboard model laptop is only of
use for publicising their service, but, luckily, the online mental health support offered by brothers Oisin and Diarmuid Scollard, and their website, Turn2Me.org, is a much sturdier affair, helping to support thousands of people across Ireland with its services. The Scollards were promoting the significant increase in the number of users on their site over the past six months, with its latest user figures revealing that membership of Turn2me has increased by 51% over the past
six months – the site now has 3,000 unique visits per month – which includes almost 29,000 visits to the website from Dublin in 2011, comprising the greatest proportion of users visiting the site. The Turn2me website is staffed by 30 moderators, who comprise a mix of people with professional psychology training, and others who bring the benefit of their life experience, with visitors to the website able to access support forums, group support, one-to-one counselling, and a wide range of information.
THE search is under way to find the young students who will win awards in this year’s Texaco Children’s Art Competition, in this, the 38th year of the contest. Brochures setting out details of the competition have been sent to all primary and second-level schools throughout Co Dublin, with the closing date for entries Friday, February 24. Copies of the brochure are also available through Texaco service stations, and online at www.texacochildrensart.com. Judging will take place throughout March, and winners will be announced in mid-April, with prize-giving to follow in mid-May. Annually, some 30,000 students compete for the 161 top prizes awarded across seven age categories, including one exclusively devoted to special needs students.
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