€25k raised over 25,000km
By Aideen O'Flaherty
A LOCAL football club has raised over €25,000 for the development of a two-storey clubhouse, after club members clocked up over 25,000kms as part of their Rockets Home Run fundraiser.
As reported in The Echo last month, Kilnamanagh AFC had submitted a planning application to South Dublin County Council for the proposed clubhouse, which is to include dressing rooms, toilets, a referee room, a club shop, a treatment room, and an external strength and conditioning area.
Members of Kilnamanagh Football Club raised over €25k
The two-storey building is to be adjacent to the club’s all-weather pitch in Ned Kelly Park in Kilnamanagh.
The football club has over 500 members, and its senior side and women’s teams have grown substantially over the years.
However, a lack of facilities has meant that their teams had to share toilets with the local community centre.
In order to raise funds for the development of the clubhouse, the club set up a fundraiser called the Rockets Home Run, where participants were invited to donate a minimum of €5 and run, scoot, cycle or walk as much as they could throughout the month of March.
The fundraiser raised a total of €25,396 for the clubhouse, and the participants covered a total of 25,326kms.
Young Adam did the half marathon for St Kevin’s Kilian’s on his bike and clocked up 250km towards Kilnamanagh soccer club
John Mackin, chairman of Kilnamanagh AFC, told The Echo: “Congratulations to all of our members for completing the Rockets Home Run fundraiser.
“I’m proud to be the chairman of such a great club like Kilnamanagh AFC and see the lengths and creativity shown by our members throughout the entire club.
“I think everybody will agree that this gave us all a major lift when we need it most, with all that’s going on with the pandemic.
“I personally would like to thank every single person who donated to the fundraiser. We received over 1,229 individual donations, which is incredible.
“This bodes well for us going forward, as we will need this enthusiasm to make the vision for our training facility become a reality.
“We appreciate every single donation, so thank you very much – this is now our best ever fundraiser.”
Mr Mackin added that he wanted to thank the club’s new fundraising team who “did a lot of work behind the scenes to get this fundraiser off the ground”.
A decision on the club’s planning application for the clubhouse is due from the council later this week.
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