AgeActionIreland

Get snapping and bag a luxury shopping spree in Dublin

ESB Customer Supply named as sponsors of Positive Ageing Week 2010

Photographers – from professionals and keen amateurs, to weekend snappers - are being offered the chance to try and bag a luxury shopping break in Dublin, and help promote Ireland’s largest celebration of positive ageing.

Broadcaster George Hook launched the 4th annual Positive Ageing Week photographic competition today in Dublin.

The top prize is a €2,000 shopping voucher at Arnotts, €1,000 worth of energy efficient products from DID Electrical and a three-night break for two at the Clarence Hotel. There are also runners-up prizes of shopping sprees and over-night stays in Dublin.

The theme of the competition is “Generations Together” and its aim is to capture positive images of ageing and older people in your community.

The winning entry will be used to publicise Positive Ageing Week 2010, which takes place from September 24 to October 2. The best entries will also form part of an exhibition which will tour Ireland. The closing date for entries is 7th May 2010.

“Older people often suffer from the negative stereo-type that they are ill, frail and are a drain on society. But the reality is very different,” said Age Action chief executive Robin Webster. “Older people are often at the heart of communities, as volunteers in sports and social organisations, as grandparents looking after children, and as pillars of society who have contributed so much in the past and continue to contribute.”

“We are hoping that this competition will encourage the public to view older people in a new light and recognise the important role they play in our communities. We are also hoping to highlight the importance of strong relationships between younger and older people.”

ESB announced that it will again sponsor this year’s Positive Ageing Week for the fifth successive year. ESB’s Executive Director of Energy Solutions, Brid Horan, said it is more important than ever in the current environment that society takes on board the views, example and experience of its senior citizens.

“During the boom days of the Celtic Tiger, it was easy to forget the basic principles of living within our means. The older generation understood all about coping and survived in harsher times. We, as a society, should now draw on their extensive experience and knowledge to help come through these more straitened circumstances”, she said.

“ESB is privileged to support our senior citizens in a practical way. We want Ireland to be a place where older people feel cherished and protected and Positive Ageing Week is a real example of empowering people to live their lives to the full, regardless of age”.

Last year there were over 700 events organised nation-wide as part of Positive Ageing Week as well as 10 Positive Ageing Week towns where a week-long series of events was held.

The event seeks to highlight that ageing is something to be celebrated, rather than feared. In addition to events organised by older people’s groups, it is an opportunity for communities to celebrate the contribution which older people have made and continue to make.

Further details are available at www.ageactionphotocomp.ie,
by phoning Age Action at 01-4756989, or by writing to Age Action at 30/31 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR COPY OF PHOTOGRAPH CONTACT EAMON TIMMINS, HEAD OF ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATIONS, AGE ACTION. 01-4756989 OR 087-9682449.