The Kids Are Very Alright

Gill with daughter, Laura, and granddaughter…

nce the votes starting coming in for Gill Gray in our annual Local Hero shout-out, the initial trickle soon turned into a flood.

Not sure we’ve ever had such a response, and it was heartening to see.

Here’s a woman who, through her Knockeevin montessori and nature schools, has looked after over 1,500 kids and families over the past 39 years.

Which means that those who spent their formative pre-school years with Gill invariably ended up sending their little pre-schoolers to Knockeevin too.

And just to bring home the point, when we headed down sponsors Schnittger Bourne this morning for the Local Hero presentation, we discovered that man-of-the-house Steven Bourne was one of those kids who spent so many happy days under Gill’s care.

“So many people in this town are connected to Knockeevin,” says Laura Bourne as we prepared to take some shots. “You could see that in the voting. There are generations voting, some looking back to their happy childhoods with Gill, others voting because their kids found a second home there.”

“I think it has a lot to do with Greystones itself,” says the lady herself. “There’s a wonderful sense of family here, of people knowing each other, of helping each other. And it’s not just the people with long family histories here; there’s a true sense of belonging when you living in Greystones, and it’s so heartwarming when you have a moment like this that proves it.

“When someone pointed out to me that there were lots of votes coming in for this, and I saw all those lovely comments, I think my face was red with embarrassment for about a week. But it’s such an honour, such a thrill…”

You can find out more about Gill’s groovy Knockeevin right about here, and about our mighty sponsors, the award-winning Schnittger Bourne, right over here.