I know the title sounds like an Enid Blyton book from the 60's but no, this is a modern day fairytale.
Recently I was asking my family and friends to sponsor me for a 24 Hour Walkathon.
"What???" they exclaimed. "You're going to walk for a full day!!!"
I had to explain that no, I wasn't undertaking such an endurance test. Rather, Raharney Hurling and Camogie clubs were in need of 80,000 euro to develop the local pitch and amenities. They had come up with the idea of having a day long walk, where 24 different groups of people would lap the pitches for an hour. After the hour they would pass the hurl*
* the stick that is used to play hurling and camogie, a bit like a hockey stick, for all my non-Irish readers!
on to the next group to continue, like the baton in a relay race.
Now considering Raharney is a small village with a population of around 300 people, raising that amount of money would take about 2-3 years, according to the committee.
Anyway all hands on deck. I was drafted into the church choir group The Saintly Crew, bearing in mind that I can't sing and am not a member. But that was irrelevant, I could walk, couldn't I?
Not only did we get sponsorship, every group also came up with their own fundraising events...and this is where the fun began. For the past month there were all sorts of shenanigans going on...tractor run, car washing, scrap metal collecting, designer clothes sale, rock-paper-scissors competition, plate painting, road hurling competition, busking (obviously done by the choir) the list goes on and on. The big push was that the more money your group raised the better the time slot you got for your walk! After all, no one wanted the graveyard shifts in the middle of the night.
The walk started at 5pm on Friday evening. We mustn't have done too badly as we got 9-10 AM on Saturday morning. The sun shone down on us as the hurl was passed from the previous group to ours.
Off we set and 1 hour and 7 laps later we were finished. Into the marquee for a well deserved cup of tea and a sausage roll!
So it continued until 5pm. Everyone returned for the last lap.
Then time for presentation to the Championship winning team of 1973. It's amazing the things we remember.
I was 9 years old at the time. After their win, the team was going on a trip to London. That was so exotic in those days. Mam and Dad went too...along with the rest of the village. Everyone boarded the bus in the car park outside our school. Us kids went out and serenaded them off with our tin-whistle playing. I remember it because Dad and Shay Murtagh gave money to buy sweets for the whole school. Again that was back in the day when sweets were NOT a daily occurrence. And THAT has stuck in my memory every since.
Anyway, after all the presentations and raffles were over, and we had all eaten our fill of curry and lasagne, it was time for the grand reveal
HOW MUCH MONEY HAD WE RAISED IN THE FOUR WEEKS?
Bear in mind, the target was for 80,000 euro over two years... and in a month we raised
73,000 euro!
Absolutely bloody amazing for such a small village. But it is a testament to the strong community spirit that exists. And apart from the money raised, the biggest outcome of the venture was the craic and laughter that was had by everyone doing it. PRICELESS.
During the evening there was a moment when we all stopped to remember deceased members of the club who are unfortunately no longer with us. I thought of my good friend Ger Flynn who was a staunch Raharney supporter and who would have been in her element organising the whole event.
Ger, you are sadly missed x
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