A GAA club in Co. Westmeath is hoping to encourage people to buy raffle tickets for a major fundraiser to develop their grounds by offering them the opportunity to win 10t of fertiliser.
Caulry GAA Club, which was founded in 1928, is also throwing in free delivery to whoever wins the prize draw.
The club anticipates that because of current high fertiliser prices the draw could prove attractive to many farm families.
According to dairy farmer Aisling Claffey, who is a member of Caulry GAA’s intermediate panel, the GAA club is “growing” having purchased 5ac of land in recent years to develop an all-weather pitch and walking track for the local community.
“The fertiliser draw is part of a wider fundraising initiative called ‘Lord of the Mount’- where three teams are running three individual fundraisers to help fund and complete the planned development.
“Mark Malone is leading a strong agri team behind him of farmers from the community and so we chose to opt for a fertiliser draw which we hope will attract in €20 donations from all over the country as fertiliser continues to be one of the dearest inputs on-farm,” Claffey said.
The draw is scheduled to take place on April 24, 2023 and tickets are now on sale.
Although the GAA club has both its main playing field and all-weather pitch “to cater for the growing demands” of members it also, according to Claffey, needs to develop its club house.
“We regularly have two to three games hosted on one evening in our grounds and only two dressing rooms currently.
“We also want to introduce gym facilities in the club to be able cater for the strength and conditioning needs of our underage and adult players,” she added.
According to dairy farmer, Claffey, the GAA club founded a ladies’ club ten years ago and now operates under the One Club Model.
“Our adult teams compete in senior men’s competitions in Westmeath and our ladies compete at intermediate, having only established an adult panel five years ago.
“In addition to this, we are excelling at underage boys and girls across all age groups, with a growing membership of over 400 members,” she said.