By Rose Barrett
A group of young girls living in the Hollywoodrath estate in Hollystown, D15 have brought joy and delight to their neighbours by making and delivering joyful letters and messages!
The girls, aged between 9 and 12, wanted to inspire hope and happiness amongst their neighbours, as society slowly re-opens with the easing of Covid restrictions. And so, they designed random ‘notes of kindness’.
Hollywoodrath was commenced in 2015 and is still in development. On completion, there will be approximately 400 homes on the 67 acre site.
Ten-year-old Maria McCourt says: “We have all just started our summer holidays from school, and wanted to work on a project that helped people. We love living in this estate, and we wanted to bring happiness to our community.”
The notes which featured messages such as “Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable!”, “You’re perfect just the way you are” and more, were all addressed from “the kids in your estate”.
Gill Dooley, parent to one of the girls, noted “We have been inundated with messages in the residents WhatsApp group saying how much this gesture has meant to our neighbours. It has helped what was already a really well-connected estate come together as a true and diverse community.”
“It really makes you feel good to know that you’re cheering someone up. It’s a great feeling!” said 12-year-old Irene Reji who participated in the feel-good message project.
“The girls only debate came when deciding if the Junk Mail signs on letterboxes in the estate should be obeyed! But they were soon reassured by residents that the random notes of kindness could not be filed under junk!” said Gill.
“Hollywoodrath is a scheme of spacious, sustainable homes with a magnificent five acre open space parkland, located 12km from the city centre. The first homes went on sale in 2015, and the estate continues to welcome new neighbours.
Ruth Cremin, one of the first residents to move into the estate back in 2015, said:
“The notes have brought such joy and happiness to our little estate. We are so thankful for the bright messages the girls have shared.”
Other positive residents’ comments in the WhatsApp group included:
“I wish all mail was like this! Thanks again and kudos to the kids and their family too for encouraging kindness!”
“Thank you so much girls, lovely surprise to come home & congrats to the parents who are raising such lovely human beings 😘.”
“How nice! I was afraid we were not going to get one as we have the sign “No Junk Mail” and was about to say in the group that these messages are not junk and would be welcomed. So I decided to double check if we had got one and we had!!
“It is a wonderful message and one that we really needed to read. Kids from this estate, thank you so much for this! And my congrats to the parents who are raising such lovely human beings! “
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