Foróige winners show heart and hope for the future
Joseph Mannion displays his personalised handmade bodhrán sticks at the Global Peter Druckner Forum in Vienna.
Travelling abroad these days is exciting for anyone and so it was an extra special occasion as Joseph Mannion, runner up in the Real Market category at the European Youth Start awards, represented Foróige at the Global Peter Druckner Forum in Vienna.
Earlier in the year, Patrick D’arcy and Joseph Mannion from the Foróige NFTE programme won a prestigious award to attend the Global Peter Drucker Forum this week in Vienna. This was a result of their achievements in the NFTE and YouthStart European Awards hosted online in April 2021.
Attending the Global Peter Druckner Forum is an incredible learning and networking opportunity for Patrick and Joseph and an opportunity to showcase their unique, creative business and innovative ideas across the European Network. Disappointingly, Patrick was unable to travel at the last minute but will hopefully benefit from the event remotely.
Patrick D’Arcy from Castlepollard Community College, Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath was a gold winner in his category ‘Best Idea’ with his business – Wide Awake. The Wide Awake a sleek lightweight device, has a Socio-technological mission to improve outcomes in the event of a fire in the home. The device works by emitting an intermittent low frequency sound and parental instruction in response to a fire alarm alert to wake a child and aid escape from the home.
Joseph Mannion from Meanscoil San Nioclas in Ring Co. Waterford won second place with a silver award in his category ’Real Market’ with his business JM Woodwork and Personalized Engraving. JM Woodwork is a company that provides handmade bodhrán sticks to bodhrán players in Ireland and internationally.
The theme at the forum this year is all about the human imperative and navigating uncertainty in the digital age. Patrick and Joseph along with the thousands of young people in Foroige have certainly demonstrated a remarkable resilience.
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic these young people are creative, inspiring, full of heart and hope for the future and a wonderful example to all of us.
In these difficult times it is great to see that together with Foroige we are creating a community of inspirational future leaders where anything is possible. We wish them well.
