Every year the girls in the Drogheda Southside Youth Project, which is run by Youth Work Ireland Louth, carry out a social awareness programme which usually entails raising funds for a local charity.
They had a meeting about three weeks ago to discuss which charity they would support this year and, while there had been various suggestions during the previous week, the arson attack which caused €50,000 worth of damage to the Drogheda Boys FC on the weekend before decided the matter.
That was it, no more discussion, the girls had found their deserving cause for this year. The Drogheda Boys pitch is just across from the Youth Work Ireland Louth house.
Next they had to decide how they were going to raise some money.
Last year they hit the headlines when they raised over €500 by growing and selling sunflowers. They halved the money with the Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre.
After some discussion the girls decided that they couldn’t waste time waiting for plants to grow, they needed to do something quick and simple but which would also be attractive to the public.
“Keep it simple” was the motto so they decided they would have a stall outside the Centra shop in Ballsgrove giving away lollipops and asking recipients for a donation.
The girls will be manning their stall from 12.30 to 6.00 pm Friday June 4th at Centra Ballsgrove
When Drogheda Life called into the project house yesterday the girls were busy preparing posters to advertise their campaign and sticking little messages to the lollipops.
To the girls’ credit not too many of the lollipops were being eaten but, as youth worker Monica Murphy said, this is an excellent example of young people working together and giving back to the community.
The Drogheda Boys online fundraising appeal is just a couple of hundred short of their target of €20,000 CLICK HERE IF YOU’D LIKE TO MAKE A DONATION
Another organisation, albeit a much larger one, that gave to this cause during the week was the Drogheda Credit Union who gave €500 to Drogheda Boys Football Club (see photo below).
Fidelma Clark and Aidan Gibney from Drogheda Credit Union who presented a cheque for €500 to Drogheda Boys and Girls FC, pictured with the Under-9 boys’ team and their coach Adam McGinn.
