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Rasharkin Gets Active Presentation Night
13th March 2016
The St.Mary's GAC Rasharkin Gets Active program which which was ran by the club in conjunction with Kennedy's Pharmacy concluded with a presentation evening at McLaughlin's Corner on Saturday 13th March.
Club Chairman Michael Hardy welcomed everyone to the Corner on Saturday night, & expressed his hope that despite the program ending, that everyone involved would continue to keep as active as they had being doing during Rasharkin Gets Active. He also praised the social aspect of everyone in the community coming together to participate, & hoped that friendships formed during Rasharkin Gets Active would last long beyond the conclusion of the event.
The club was delighted to welcome Michael Hasson to his first club event as Ulster President. Michael presented everyone in attendance with a certificate to mark the completion of their participation in Rasharkin Gets Active. Speaking on Saturday evening, Michael commended everyone involved for their hard work in organising the event, which over the course of the previous 8 weeks had brought a wide range of people both young & old together for all the various activities available.
Event organiser Thomas Donaghy took time to thank everyone who had helped make Rasharkin Gets Active such a success. This year the club had changed the focus of this now annual event away from just weight loss and had instead hoped that participants would look at a change in lifestyle. With this in mind a range of activities were offered to allow everyone taking part to choose something they would find enjoyable and also fit into their schedules. Thomas thanked everyone who made this possible, including Claire McFlynn who had taken the couch to 5k group, Sharon Kearns, Frank & Terry Hasson who had looked after the walking groups, Amy Brennan had held a Saturday morning exercise class, and Darren O'Boyle, Thomas Darragh & Matthew Mooney from the local running group who had organised runs around the village & Portglenone Forest. Thomas Donaghy had also offered Boxercise classes at Dreen throughout Rasharkin Gets Active. Terry was also thanked for his work in organising the Sunday morning team events.
Thomas thanked Elaine Donaghy & Natalie Hasson for their hard work in advertising the event, as well as organising the certificates and decorating the room at McLaughlins Corner on Saturday night.
Patrick Kennedy was thanked for his continued support to the club in running this event. Patrick also praised the club on Saturday night for their excellent work in organising Rasharkin Gets Active & congratulated everyone who took part on the progress they had made over the 8 weeks.
St. Mary's Health & Well Being Officer Terry Hasson talked about the club's continued participation in the GAA's National Healthy Club Program. Having completed the pilot phase 1, Rasharkin are now one of 60 clubs who are taking part in phase 2 of the Healthy Club initiative. He also urged everyone to keep up the good work they had began, & was delighted with the response to the Rasharkin Gets Active program, particularly pleasing for Terry had been the interest to a number of the workshops the club had organised on mental health. He hoped that continuing on from Rasharkin Gets Active, more people would become involved with the St. Marys Healthy Club initiative.
Michael Hardy concluded the speeches by thanking Thomas for his work in organising the Rasharkin Gets Active Event, and also thanked McLaughlin's Corner for providing an excellent meal on Saturday.
As well as everyone who took part receiving a certificate, a number of other awards were also presented on Saturday night. The Yellow team where this year's overall winners, team captain Sharon Kearns received an award from Patrick Kennedy.
Individual awards were presented to Jimmy Anderson & Sally Mitchell who achieved the most activity points during Rasharkin Gets Active.
John Mooney who was unable to attend & Briege Etherson received awards for the highest individual weight loss.
Finally to mark the end of Rasharkin Gets Active, a 5K walk & Fun Run and 10K Run were held on Saturday morning. Joe Crawford was the winner of the 5K walk, Briege Etherson was quickest in the Fun Run and Chris McKillop collected the 10K prize. Darren O'Boyl presented them with their trophies.
St. Mary's would like to thank everyone who took part & helped in anyway. Keep up the good work & we look forward to seeing you all at Dreen this season!
