Young people are awarded bursaries from Lisburn Mayor

Pictured with the Mayor of Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council, Councillor Thomas Beckett and Sarah Smith, Coca-Coca HBCNI are the recipients of this year's Mayor's Coca-Cola Bursary Award Scheme. They are: (l-r) Jessica Cowdean; Ryan McConville; Tom Gowdy; Mark Woods and Hollie Cowdean.

The Mayor, Councillor Thomas Beckett and Sarah Smith from Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland, presented the bursary cheques to the lucky people who received them to help them progress and develop their talents and/or skills in the areas of arts, sport and community service development.

Ryan McConville, Todd Gowdy, Mark Woods, Ruth Steen, Jessica Cowdean and Hollie Cowdean were the six young people who received a Mayor’s Coca-Cola Bursary Award in 2015.

Councillor Thomas Beckett, speaking about the bursaries, said: “These bursaries offer financial support to talented young people from the Lisburn and Castlereagh areas to enable them to develop their skills and individual performance in a variety of activities.

“The quality of entries this year was extremely impressive and I hope that the six recipients will use this bursary to achieve their ambitions in a variety of disciplines from sport and music and from art to community work.

“It is heartening to see and in partnership with Coca-Cola be able to recognise the commitment and effort of young people in the Council area; and experience the sense of community that they have developed. There is an apparent eagerness to help others and improve their talents so they can coach others. I would encourage them to make the most of the opportunities presented to them.”

“Charitable work was also a common theme with three of the six bursaries being provided to assist young people in their community based activities in foreign lands to raise awareness of illness and disability.”

Sarah Smith, PR Coordinator, Coca-Cola HBC Northern Ireland added: “Coca-Cola HBC NI are proud sponsors of the Bursary Awards and have been sponsoring the awards for more than 10 years now. It is great to award our local young people who are pursuing their ambitions in the fields of art, sport and community development and with this prize in hand it will enable them to achieve not only their goals but to benefit others of which some are going on to help. Congratulations to all the worthy winners and we look forward to seeing their progress.

“Through this scheme, the Council and Coca-Cola hope to support life-changing opportunities for the young people of the City. Young people are the future of Lisburn and Castlereagh and it is great to be able to support them as they pursue their ambition and strive to become the best in their chosen field.”