Courtney McGrailAn Offaly student shares her experience of completing the Pope John Paul II Gold Award
Laura Murray
My name is Laura Murray. I’m a member of the Kildare and Leighlin diocese living in Killeigh, Co. Offaly. I am currently a 5th year student in the Sacred Heart Secondary School, Tullamore.
During my Transition Year I took on the challenge of completing the Pope John Paul II Gold Award. This award was set up for young people in memory of the late Pope John Paul II who had a profound love for young people. I heard about this award through my parish priest, Fr John Stapleton who mentioned it to me. I knew little about the award as it had never been done in either my school or parish before, so I set about finding out more information. I looked into the requirements of the award and with the help of my award leader, Fr Stapleton, my religion teacher Ms Keogh, my family, friends and school, I set out in October 2014 on the journey of completing the Pope John Paul II Gold Award.
I decided to do the award as I wanted to become more actively involved in both the Church and my local community and I thought Transition Year was a perfect year to do it as I had a bit more time on my hands.
The Gold Award involved 20 weeks parish involvement, 20 weeks social awareness and finally a reflection on the award. For the parish involvement aspect of the award, I assisted my granny Doris, who is the sacristan of Killeigh church, in her work weekly for a total of 20 weeks.
Every weekend I would help her for a few hours to organise for Saturday night and Sunday morning Mass. I arrived an hour before the Masses to set up where I would open gates and doors, turn on lights and the microphones. I would put out the hymn sheets, newsletters, offertory baskets and the envelope boxes. I put out the chalice, bread, water and wine, ciboria’s etc. After Mass, I would sell The Irish Catholic newspaper to the locals.
Volunteering
For the social awareness aspect of the award, I firstly spent nine weeks volunteering in my primary school, Killeigh N.S.
I volunteered every Wednesday where I assisted any teachers that needed help. I also got many opportunities to sit in on classes and I got to give a history and an Irish lesson to fifth class and read stories with the infant classes.
For the next 10 weeks I volunteered in an Oxfam charity shop which was a very worthwhile experience as I got to see how a charity is run. I volunteered every Wednesday including Christmas Eve. For one week I trained a local U10 camogie team, which I am continuing to do even though I have the award hours completed. Every Saturday morning from 10–11am I train the U10 camogie girls with my dad. I take the girls for the first 10 minutes to do a warm–up involving running and stretching.
After that I help the girls that struggle to perform the drill to understand how to do it. As proof I had completed the hours, I kept a record log which had to be signed weekly by my facilitator.
Overall, I loved both the parish involvement and the social awareness aspect of the award. Through parish involvement it has taught me a lot about my religion. By volunteering to help the church sacristan I feel more like a member of my parish and that my work is helping others.
Parish
Also through parish involvement I understand the importance of our priest and lay people within the Church who volunteer to do various jobs. I certainly enjoyed the social awareness aspect of the award also.
Going back to my local primary school was very enjoyable. I got the chance to experience what it’s like to be a teacher and it has opened my mind to taking a career in primary school teaching. By volunteering in the Oxfam charity shop, I learned the importance of the work of charities.
Also, I learned the role and the importance of having volunteers as they have an enormous impact on the well–being of communities worldwide and without volunteers our world wouldn’t survive.
Lastly, teaching camogie to an underage team was very enjoyable. I felt like my bit of volunteering was helpful and was making a small difference. Again the role of volunteers in a sports club is so important as together they make a big difference to the community and that they should be appreciated more and not taken for granted.
I completed the award hours last May and have recently sent away my record log and reflection to be checked. I am currently, excitingly, waiting until next January/early February for my award presentation ceremony in Carlow.
I am extremely thankful to all who helped me through the award especially my parish priest, Fr Stapleton, my religion teacher, Ms Keogh and my family.
Sacred Heart Secondary School, Tullamore is one of 110 voluntary Catholic secondary schools managed by CEIST (Catholic Education An Irish Schools’ Trust).