*Sarah Treacy.
WHITEGATE teenager Sarah Treacy has joined the Youth Board of educational charitable trust, Airfield Estate.
On Monday, Sarah was announced as one of ten teenagers nationwide selected to help inform and shape the future of sustainable food in Ireland as members of the 2025/26 Youth Board with Airfield Estate, the sustainable food hub and educational charitable trust.
Sixteen year old Sarah joins the Youth Board which provides a platform for a younger generation to impact climate action and also aims to help teenagers develop skills in sustainability, agriculture and leadership.
Coming from a farm in Whitegate, Sarah has first-hand experience of food production after starting a business where she sold hen eggs from her garden, and was the runner up in a Local Enterprise Office Teen Enterprise Competition.
With a passion for climate change and agriculture, she believes that sustainable farming practices are essential to preserve farming lifestyles for future generations.
As a member of the Airfield Estate Youth Board, Sarah and her peers will be taking part in workshops and talks to help them become future leaders in the food, agriculture and climate action space.
She joins Aoife McGowan (19) from Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim, Clodagh Farrell (15) from Terenure, Dublin, Emily O’Brien (16) from Croghan in Offaly, Dundrum in Dublin quartet Hugo Russel Connolly (17), John Badin (15), Sam Barry (15), Sean Monaghan (15), Mullingar’s Jane Duggan (19), Mary Clare O’Connell (16) of Blarney, Co Cork
Acting as advisors to the Estate’s leadership team, the Youth Board brings fresh perspectives to projects and decision-making processes, ensuring that youth voices are represented at Airfield Estate.
Speaking about the appointments, Airfield Estate CEO Claire Mac Evilly said “Our mission at Airfield Estate is to maintain the legacy created by the Overend sisters and to safeguard sustainable food production and education for future generations. There’s no better way to do that than to invite young people in and empower them to participate directly in our activities and projects. While our team will be on hand to share resources and facilitate, we look forward to hearing new ways of thinking, and learning from our new members how best to cultivate and protect our shared future”.
The first term of the Youth Board, which began in 2023 and lasted two years, recently conducted research and published a report titled “Food Systems Though the Eyes of Young People” exploring how the younger generations perceive the food system and their role within it. The newly recruited cohort will be working together to develop a campaign which builds upon the findings of the research.
