Ballina was unsuccessful in its bid to become the European Volunteering Capital (EVC) in 2026, but the application process has improved the town’s visibility in Europe.
Cathaoirleach of the Ballina Municipal District Cllr Michael Loftus attended the announcement event in Trento in Italy at the end of November along with the head of the Ballina district Declan Turnbull.
Ballina was in the running to become EVC 2026 alongside Rzeszow, Poland and Maia, Portugal, with the latter claiming the title. Mechelen, Belgium is next year’s EVC.
Despite missing out on the accolade, Cllr Loftus said the experience has generated a lot of useful contacts and benefits into the future.
“We got a great reception to our application, it was so well received. We can hold our heads high in relation to the result,” he said. “We did Ballina and Mayo very proud and made lots of friends and contacts in Poland, Portugal, Italy and Belgium.”
He said the other entrants and the adjudication panel were impressed with Ballina’s volunteering capacity in relation to its population.
“The population of Maia is over 100,000 and the population of Rzeszow is close to 200,000. In the Ballina Municipal District, we have a population of around 22,000 and everyone was really impressed by this,” Cllr Loftus said. “We did the math and one in four people in this area is a volunteer which is amazing.”
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Publish date : 2024-12-17 15:00:00
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