Tús Nua Rehabcare Tullamore wins regional award

Tús Nua RehabCare, Tullamore was named the Midlands Region’s Travel School of the Year at a ceremony in Dublin on Thursday. An Taisce Green-Schools presented the school with their award at the event honouring the winners of this year’s Green-Schools Big Travel Challenge 2024 in Haughton House of Dublin Zoo. Four other schools were also awarded on the day for their efforts promoting sustainable and active travel modes to school.

Schools took on the Big Travel Challenge from the 4th – 15th of March, during which they were asked to concentrate on one or more sustainable transport modes for two weeks to see if they could achieve real, lasting change in the travel behaviour of their staff and students. The Challenge is an initiative of the Green-Schools Travel theme, which is supported by the NTA and the Department of Transport.

Tús Nua RehabCare is a Day Service for adults with disabilities in Tanyard, Tullamore. For this year’s Big Travel Challenge, they promoted public transport and walking/ wheeling. Despite many of the service users having free public transport cards, they rarely get to use them as they tend to be driven to the centre. The service users would like to help the environment and enjoyed taking public transport, hoping to extend this practise beyond the Big Travel Challenge.

They have also completed a walkability audit that has been submitted to Offaly County Council to try make Tullamore a better place and to make it more accessible to people walking around the town.

Congratulating Tús Nua RehabCare and the other awarded schools on their achievements, An Taisce Education Unit Director Cathy Baxter said: “It's so uplifting to see such enthusiasm and creativity in making the journey to school sustainable! Initiatives like these, as part of Green-Schools Travel programme, are so important in creating real sustainable behaviour change and are testament to the work of the students, teachers and whole school community, as well as our partnerships with Local Authorities, the National Transport Authority and Department of Transport.”

The top schools from each county were awarded for their part in promoting green travel modes to school as part of the BIG Travel Challenge, with a regional winner chosen from them. The Staffroom Challenge was back by popular demand as well, extending the competition to school teachers and staff to travel more sustainably, and get creative doing so.

The schools awarded on the day were:

Cappawhite NS, Tipperary – Southern Region and National winners

Loreto Primary Dalkey – Eastern Region winners

Tooreen NS, Ballyhaunis – Northwestern Region winner

Tús Nua RehabCare, Tullamore – Midlands Region winner

St. Joseph’s Templemore – Staffroom Challenge winner