Congratulations all round! “@digital_times: Irish Men’s Shed builds the #RaboTweeties award statuette
This year’s #RaboTweeties award statuette was designed and hand made by Charlie McEnteggart of the Drogheda Men’s Shed, with the valuable help of many of his Men’s Shed colleagues.
In May of this year the #RaboTweeties launched a competition that could be entered by every Men’s Shed in the country.
“I always find it difficult to buy decent statuettes for awards shows,” says Stephen Conmy, event organiser, “so I asked Brendan Byrne of the Irish Men’s Sheds if it would be something the various sheds could pitch for? The only stipulation was it had to be based on the theme of a hashtag.”
Five Sheds entered the competition and Charlie’s was the clear winner.
“I couldn’t believe th
e quality of what Charlie and the members of the Drogheda Men’s Shed came back with,” says Conmy.
“It’s a three dimensional, hand-crafted hashtag, made entirely of wood, with no nails or glue used to hold it together. It’s brilliant, a thing of beauty. You can see the care and effort that went into every one of them.”
There are 25 statuettes in total. One was recently gifted to Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D. Higgins at the Men’s Shed’s recent annual conference.
“I’m delighted to have worked with the Men’s Sheds on this project,” says Conmy. “The IMSA is an extremely important social organisation in this country. Charlie and his colleagues are VIP guests at this year’s #RaboTweeties awards, and I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
The design and manufacture of award statuettes is now something the Irish Men’s Sheds Association sees as a viable, commercial opportunity for all of the 200+ Men’s Sheds in Ireland.
“I think there’s a market in this area for the Irish Men’s Sheds Association (ISMA),” says Conmy. “There are talented, creative and hard-working men in every one of the 200+ sheds around the country and there is great potential for them to find all kinds of markets to tap into with their skill sets.”
The #RaboTweeties is an awards show that honours the very best on Twitter in Ireland. It will be held in The Sugar Club in Dublin on November 26, 2014. Every winner of a #RaboTweeties award will receive one of the Drogheda Men’s Shed’s hand-crafted statuettes.
More details are available on www.rabotweeties.com.
