Ratoath AC in contention for National Lottery award
Ratoath Athletic Club is one of three Leinster sports clubs to compete in the National Lottery Good Causes Awards on Saturday 29th May.
The National Lottery Good Causes Awards honour the inspiring work and achievements of thousands of projects, clubs and individuals from all over Ireland who with the help of National Lottery Good Causes funding have had an extraordinary impact on their local communities.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes all over the country.
The Awards have six categories: Sport, Health & Wellbeing, Heritage, Arts & Culture, Community and Youth.
A seventh category, Irish Language, will have a special award to be announced at the Awards final, in recognition of outstanding work done in the promotion of the Irish Language.
Each category winner will receive €10,000 while the overall Good Cause of the Year will get an additional €25,000 on top of this.
The winners will be announced at a virtual event hosted by Grainne Seoige live from the Mansion House on Saturday 29th May.
LEINSTER CLUBS
Ratoath AC: Since being founded in 1971, Ratoath Athletic Club has grown to be one of the largest clubs in their local area with over 460 active members.
Their athletes have competed successfully in competitions all over Ireland and in European circuits.
The funding received by the club allowed the construction of a 2000ms blue tartan area which can be used for a range of events including sprinting / hurdling, long jump, high jump and strength and conditioning.
This has enabled the club to expand the sports that they can now offer.
One of the key objectives of the club is to encourage participation within the wider community and to ensure local groups benefit from the facilities.
Shankill Tennis Club Six years ago, they started working with players with disabilities and since then, the club has created a National Programme called Enjoy Tennis which now has 1,200 players in 80 clubs all over Ireland.
The funding allowed the club to build an indoor centre, which they realized was necessary to meet the needs of all players and enable them to enjoy the game safely. Players with a range of different needs including those who are blind/visually impaired, have an acquired brain injury, intellectual disability/autism, dementia or are in a wheelchair, can now safely enjoy a game of tennis at the club.
South Dublin Taekwondo: Tallaght based club which was founded in 2008. The club has around 80 members and teaches people of all ages and experiences in this Korean martial art. At the beginning of 2020, the club found out that one of their students qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and their coaches are also national team coaches. Through the funding received, the club has been able to invest in equipment, such as electronic scoring equipment and 300 Martial Arts Mats. This equipment is very expensive and the club usually only has the chance to use it when they travel to international tournaments. Now, the club and their friends have full access to this equipment.
Following the announcement of the 36 finalists back in February, each of the community groups, sports clubs and organisations from all over Ireland, went on to the virtual judging segment of the competition which took place on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th February.
Representatives from each of the finalist groups were asked to do a short presentation remotely to the judging panel and to answer any questions that arose.
The judging panel was chaired by Nuala Carey, Lotto presenter, and also included Seamus Griffin, CEO of the Griffin Retail Group, Fergus Finlay, Columnist and Author, and Jennifer Crowe, CSR Manager of the National Lottery.