Offaly GAA Club's remarkably successful fundraiser climbs towards €100,000 benchmark

AN Offaly GAA Club has embarked on a remarkably successful fundraiser with the figure creeping steadily towards the €100,000 benchmark and likely to power past that ahead of the weekend.

The success of a sponsored walk by Kilcormac-Killoughey GAA Club has surpassed their wildest expectations with participants and members rowing in behind it quite spectacularly, pulling in support from their contacts in the wider GAA community, and far outside of it.

They certainly never anticipated collecting such a windfall when they organised a sponsored walk just a short couple of years ago. With the Leinster Club Senior Hurling Championship campaign looming, they needed to get in money to meet a growing expense bill and arranged a sponsored walk for Lough Boora Parklands on Sunday, December 3 – at 11am.

Almost immediately, the participants and members rallied behind and within a few hours, over €10,000 had been collected. It quickly went above €15,000 and milestones have been passed at remarkable speed since then.

It went over €50,000 at the weekend and at the time of writing on Wednesday evening, over €71,000 had been collected. Kilcormac-Killoughey are playing Kilkenny's O'Loughlin Gaels in a hugely attractive Leinster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi-final in O'Connor Park on Saturday next and club are making a determined push in the coming days.

While they hope to reach the Leinster club final the following week, K-K know that the fundraiser will lose some momentum if they are beaten on Saturday and the adage of “making hay while the sun is shining” is very much at play at the moment.

K-K have followed the same template used by the Offaly GAA County Board for their phenomenally successful Grand Canal walk fundraiser over the past few years. That walk was run in conjunction with the Supporters Club, Club Faithful with donations paid for by bank card on their fundraising portal.

That portal has been made available to all GAA Clubs in Offaly to use if required and Kilcormac-Killoughey have availed of it. It has a tried and proven method with participants listed along with the figures they raise and all who donate – sponsors also have the option of submitting a note of good wishes or congratulations to participants or/and the club.

Ballycumber GAA held a very successful one some time ago, staging a walk from Croke Park via the canal, as they raised funds for an Activity Centre at their playing field outside the village – that Activity Centre will be officially opened by GAA president, Larry McCarthy next Wednesday evening.

Now K-K have availed of the momentum created by a sensational season to tap into the vast goodwill that is there – both in their sprawling parish and far outside it. They regained the Offaly Senior Hurling Championship in sensational style and have now embarked on a provincial run that is full of promise at the moment. They also won the Senior “B”, U20 and U-15 Hurling Championship and Junior Football Championship in 2023 and the season is not over yet.

98 walkers have signed up for the walk and are all collecting funds. Part of the success of these fundraising ventures is generated by a competitive element, where the public can see what each is raising and the participants push more and more – using their personal contacts as well as social media forums and sending out group what's app messages so far.

In the few minutes I was writing this, the figure increased by an additional €400 towards €71,500 and could well go over €75,000 this evening.

The biggest amount collected to date is by club stalwart and Offaly Coiste na nOg chairman Keith Screeney. Father of star players, Jack and Adam Screeney, he had collected €4,765 at the time of writing. Thomas Bracken was on €3,945, Tommy Kilmartin €3,507 and Justin Mahon €3,405. This quartet are the ones over €3,000 but a few more have passed €2,000 and several are above €1,000. A few have collected less than €100 so far and as they and others get going in the coming days, the figure will increase and probably get over that magical figure of €100,000.

The club have not asked players to collect money, leaving them to concentrate on their main role of preparing for and winning games but the wider community in the parish have certainly showed their appreciation in very generous terms.

The fundraising portal will remain open for the coming weeks and needless to say, the club would like to thank everyone for their support to date, encourage participants to continue to push it and ask others for backing – the whole venture is creating great fun in the area as well and it shows what can be achieved by clubs.

Anyone wishing to donate can do so by accessing this link and selecting a participant:

https://fundmajor.clubfaithful.ie/sponsoring?