Winners of community athletics track fundraiser revealed

Roscommon Community Athletics Track (RCAT) Committee revealed the winners of its Win a Garden Room/ Win a Kitchen fundraising draw, which took place at the Lisnamult Sports Park. The draw was overseen by Garda Tyrone Nulty.

The prize of a garden room, valued at €65,000 and sponsored by local Roscommon business, Lidan, was won by Vanessa Moules from County Wicklow. Ms Moules already has plans to use the space as a sensory and therapy room for her very six-year-old son Luca. The winning ticket was pulled by Dan O'Brien, managing director of Lidan.

The prize of a bespoke Mark Lohan kitchen, worth €25,000, sponsored by Mark Lohan Kitchens, was won by Daisy Deady, County Cork who along with her two children was very excited to receive the winning call. The winning ticket was pulled by Mark Lohan, managing director of Mark Lohan Kitchens, alongside his son Patrick who is a juvenile member of the local athletics club.

Chairperson of the RCAT Committee Paul McNamara, said that “the draw went fantastically well, with huge support from an awful lot of people. A key objective for the committee and of the project generally is to bring the community on board, bring key stakeholders on board and to get people within the community to champion the project.” 

Mr McNamara who is high performance director of Athletics Ireland, added that in terms of getting this project over the line in the next year or two, this pillar of fundraising was instrumental.

Project leader with RCAT, Donal Flynn explained that planning for the project has been completed, an engineer is on board and the committee has put the project out to tender. He explained that once the contractor is appointed the project will be ready to move forward. “There is a matter of a new road to be constructed and power lines to be moved, but once that is taken care of, the project is ready to go,” he said.

Speaking about the timeline, Mr Flynn estimated a year and a half to two years for completion of the track, but said a lot depends on finances and if and when funding comes through.

Jennifer Brennan, RCAT treasurer, spoke of the success of the draw to date and the importance of getting the word out locally, nationally and internationally. She also added that the focus of this fundraising campaign was to bring the project towards match-funding with the sports capital grant already secured and to get the project off the ground. This is just the start in terms of the bigger picture, with the overall target for the project coming in at €1.5 million. When asked what’s next, Ms Brennan spoke about corporate funding, applying for grants, and hopefully another tranche of sport capital funding.

The committee acknowledged both its main sponsors, Lidan, in particular Dan O'Brien, Liam Casey and Chris Ball, and Mark Lohan Kitchens, Mark Lohan and Sinead Fannon, for their vision, generosity and support throughout this process.

A note of appreciation goes to Siobhan and Fintan Kilroe in Xlnt Signs who sponsored the signs, and to all the bonus prize sponsors. A big thank you to everyone who supported the project behind the scenes and through buying tickets, and all the volunteers who helped over the last few months, in particular the tickets sellers who stood out rail, hail or shine and sometimes all three of the above.

The campaign was given a much appreciated boost online by some well-known figures including Diarmuid Murtagh, Senan Lambe, David Gillick, Darragh Murray, Ruth Scott, Sarah Cunningham, Paddy Joe Burke, Denis Buckley, Lisa and Aoife O Rourke, Maria Walshe and more.

While the final tally is being calculated and verified, the RCAT Committee is happy to confirm that the draw exceeded its target and that this first stage of fundraising will enable work to begin in earnest on the site at Lisnamult Community Sports Park.