What have you done today to make you feel proud? [Profile of David Monaghan by Avril Hoare]

We're more than half way through the UN year of the

Volunteer.  From mission work to non-governmental

agencies who fly into war zones and disaster areas, it's

a tradition that Irish people can be justly proud of.

Our own David Monaghan has been a volunteer within

scouting for over 15 years.

He manages to extract money - as a fundraiser! - with

envious ease and has helped secure thousands of pounds

in funding for many projects.

One of them was the development of the Irvinestown Youth

Development Centre - a state of the art IT facility for

young people.

David has been a member of the National Venture Team

since 1998 and was appointed Assistant National

Commissioner last year.

It's not always easy to persaude people to do something

for nothing.  This is something David is all too aware

of and says there's a need for volunteers in different

sectors to support each other and to share the load

wherever possible.

Outside of scouting, David is involved in rural

community development issues.  He's been honourary

treasurer of Irvinestown Community Partnership for the

past 5 years. One of the most exciting projects he's

involved in is the Healthy Living Centre - the first of

its kind in Northern Ireland.

David is a director of the centre which will provide a

base for a range of holistic health improvement

programmes.

We all know David's skills as a team player and someone

who gets the job done.  But we're not the only ones.  He

recently won the Individual Community Endeavour award

for his volunteer work in the Rural Community Network

Awards - good on you David, we're all proud of you!

David does what he does because he believes it is the

right thing to do.

Who could ask for more?