Volunteers ‘boxing clever’ with community centre clean-up

A TEAM of volunteers from the Brookfield Community Centre carried out a clean-up of the centre last Saturday, as they feel it has been “forgotten about”.

The centre is in the grounds of St Aidan’s Community School and hosts a number of successful sports groups, including the Black Panther Kickboxing Club and Westside Boxing Club.

Volunteers from the community and the sports clubs carried out the clean-up to highlight the community centre and the work that is carried out in it.

Norman Kelly from Black Panther and the Brookfield Community Centre told The Echo: “[The centre] has been running for the last 30 years.

“It has the Black Panther Kickboxing Club and Westside Boxing Club with a number of other activities going on in the centre.

Malecki and Pramod Sakre Families during the clean-up

“The centre has been quite busy but needs renovation and upgrading, which it has not received in a long time.

“The community centre is vital to the area and has been the heart of the community for many years.

“It has proven itself within the community and has survived, to date, on limited funding.”

Mr Kelly pointed out that the sports clubs in the centre “have produced world and national champions in their respective sports” and shows a positive aspect of the area.

Pat Harding and McDonagh Family (Black Panthers)

“The clean-up was a very important day for us to highlight and to have come together as a community,” he said.

“We feel that the community centre and the area has been neglected and has not received the attention that it deserves in a positive way.

“All of the community would be lost without this facility.

“We feel that we have been forgotten about and had to do a clean-up to get our community centre highlighted and back on the map.

“The clean-up was a great success and all the families and clubs from the community all enjoyed helping and cleaning up.

“It was very positive with smiles on their faces at the end of the day.”

Mr Kelly added that he wanted to thank Cllr Charlie O’Connor, and local TDs Seán Crowe and Francis Noel Duffy for their support, and Erin Ballesty from South Dublin County Council for attending on the day.

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