Young tidy towns member in Kilmallock adds colour to her Limerick Community

A YOUNG member of the Kilmallock tidy towns team has been using her creative skills to bring colour and life to small corners of the community, by painting eye-catching designs on electrical boxes around the town. 

Teresa Kennedy, a 16 year old student living in Kilmallock has been a member of the tidy towns team for the last year.

The team meet twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday evenings and work to complete plenty of jobs around the town such as planting, watering, and maintaining all the flower beds, as well as litter picking and painting. 

Teresa has been spending her free time during the summer holidays decorating the electrical boxes around the town with fun designs and colours. 

READ MORE: Limerick's Blindboy Boatclub nominated for international documentary awards

All of her designs so far have been themed around biodiversity and include paintings of things such as roses, dandelions, cherry blossoms, butterflies, and bees. 

So far, Teresa has completed 10 boxes and will continue to work on them for the remainder of her holidays. 

Speaking about her creative passion, Teresa said; “I have loved making art since I was really young. I was lucky enough growing up to have lots of relatives who were interested in crafts, so I always had access to art supplies when I was little. I'm really enjoying doing this project over the summer and look forward to spending the next couple of months finishing it off.” 

She added how the community in Kilmallock welcomed the project; “I was delighted to be asked by the tidy towns to do such a creative project over the summer months and it has been really nice to meet and speak to people who I ordinarily might not have had the chance to. People have been really friendly and encouraging when they pass me on the street and everyone seems to like my work so far, which is great.” 

In September, Teresa will be starting 5th year in Coláiste Iósaef secondary school, and is hoping to study art as one of her subjects for the leaving certificate, which she says she is really looking forward to.