Pullough Community Action Group Wins National Volunteer Award

Pullough Community Action Group Wins National Volunteer Award

 Thu, 13th Dec, 2018


Pullough Community Action Group won the Outstanding Group award at the national Volunteer Ireland Awards on Friday 7th December. Over 1 million people in Ireland volunteer and these awards aim to say thank you for the hard work, dedication and impact of volunteers across the country. 
Pullough Community Action Group was set up by a group of 8 volunteers who felt this small rural village needed to have a shop where local people could buy basic groceries and meet their neighbours on a regular basis.
In spite of the fact that they had no money to bring about their dream of re-opening a shop, this group set about fundraising to set up a community, voluntary run shop. Within a few months they had secured permission from the owner to lease the premises, raised enough money to cover the cost of insurance, repair, restore and stock  the shop. Overcoming all obstacles they forged ahead and opened Offaly's only community shop in June 2017. Since then they have remained dedicated to their roles as volunteers. The shop is open seven days a week, even remaining open during the severe storms and snow of the past year.
The re-opening of the shop has brought new life to the village. It not only provides local people with the opportunity to buy food locally but has become a social hub and is greatly contributing to inter-generational interaction through the hosting of community events. The creation of a youth space in an area of the shop has also made a big difference to the young people of the area.
According to Offaly Volunteering Information Service Coordinator Amanda Caulfield “We are very lucky to have volunteers like this here in Offaly and I’d like to congratulate them all on this achievement. They really are the embodiment of the volunteering spirit, giving back to make a real difference in their community. Hopefully their story will inspire others to get involved in their communities.”
The eleventh Volunteer Ireland Awards took place on Friday 7th December in the Carlton Hotel, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.