The Fettercairn Equine Idols, the Foróige Youth Club which is part of the Fettercairn Youth Horse Project, was awarded a Foróige Youth Citizenship Certificate of Participation on the 2nd July 2016 in the City West Hotel and Conference Centre.

L-R Back Row; Shauna, Amy, Chloe, Alannah, Jowita and Sabina. L-R Front Row; Alice, Emily, Michelle and Shauna T.

The club participants attended for the full day and all had a brilliant time.

Each member of the club had picked a younger child to mentor over a few weeks and they taught the children something new while they were attending their riding lesson at the Horse Project. This was done, for example, by the club members leading the younger children each week and teaching them things like improving their position while riding. Some of the younger children even progressed on to riding by themselves. The activity of the Fettercairn Equine Idols team was judged to be an outstanding example of active citizenship.

Two thousand young people, and hundreds of volunteers, attended the event to celebrate the work of young people in the community over the past year. Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone TD opened the event, 2FM’s Eoghan McDermott MD’d the awards, while it also featured talks from disability rights campaigner Joanne O’Riordan and social media expert Darragh Doyle.

The young people also enjoyed a wide variety of activities, including indoor rock climbing and abseiling, a snowboarding simulator, recording studio, miniature golf, and a performance from Keywest.

Ciaran scales the Climbing Wall