Mayo Community Groups Unite for Tree Planting Initiative
To celebrate International Women’s Day and National Tree Week, diverse social groups including schools, disability organisations, sports clubs, cultural groups and vulnerable communities of all ages in Castlebar, Co Mayo, came together to plant 100 heritage apple trees on Saturday 8th March 2025.
Over 60 community groups united to plant these two orchards and to spread the core principles behind this project:
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Bee kind to yourself
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Bee kind to others
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Bee kind to your community
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Bee kind to nature
This project titled “Bee Kind” is designed and funded Variety – the Children’s Charity with the kind support of Castlebar Tidy Towns and Mayo County Council.
The objective of the “Bee Kind Project”, which is the creation of volunteer director at Variety Ireland Sean Corrigan, is helping unite people and groups living in Castlebar with each other as part of this tree planting initiative.
The “Bee Kind Project” fosters social connections and spreads the important message of being kind to yourself, kind to others, kind to your community and kind to nature.
To start the initiative, two community orchards were planted in Lough Lannagh Castlebar. The project funded by national children’s charity Variety Ireland, is a partnership with Castlebar Tidy Towns and is supported by Mayo County Council.
The project has many benefits to those taking part. Getting out into nature is proven to have a benefit on people’s mental health and wellbeing. Vulnerable or disadvantaged groups are affected by climate change and biodiversity loss, and they rarely get the opportunity to take part proactively in activities that can have a positive impact on their local community. This project encourages people of all backgrounds to connect and work together.
Trees are symbolic; planting trees gives the opportunity for families and community groups to come together and plant something that can be revisited as it grows as a living memory. In this case the trees will produce an estimated 50,000 apples per year for the inhabitants of Castlebar as well as producing 40 tonnes of oxygen on an annual basis.
Speaking about the project, Sean Corrigan from Variety Ireland added “It is great to see so many community groups coming together to take part in a project that has so many social and environment benefits. I’d like to acknowledge the vital role that Castlebar Tidy Towns and Mayo County Council have played in this project. It wouldn’t have happened without them. We at Variety Ireland hope to roll out our “Bee Kind Project” out to other towns and cities across Ireland in the next 24 months.
Some of the groups who participated in this wonderful initiative in Castlebar included children and adults from across various disability groups in Mayo. These include Castlebar Autism, Down Syndrome Mayo, Mindspace along with national and secondary school pupils with children with special needs. They were joined by a variety of local groups within the Castlebar community to collectively plant 100 heritage apple trees together. Residents and groups were invited to come along on the day to join in the fun.
On behalf of Variety – the Children’s Charity of Ireland, Mayo County Council and Castlebar Tidy Towns, we would like to thank all of the 60 local groups who participated tree planting initiative!!
