Healthy Club heroes include St John’s man
THE closing ceremony at the Healthy Club Conference in Croke Park recently saw a special group of people honoured for their exceptional efforts in promoting the GAA’s Healthy Club Project.
Among the 23 clubs was St John’s as Seamus Casey was honoured for his work on the project.
Seamus, the Chairman of St John’s led the club committee to research, write and publish a book celebrating 30 years of the club’s existence. He organised a successful Operation Transformation campaign, including nutritionists, trainers, and medical advisors. Seamus also sought for the inclusion of activities such as Pilates, a life coach to speak to younger people, and made the club the first non-smoking in Sligo.
The Healthy Club Project started in 2014 with just 16 clubs, four from each province, involved. It currently engages 150 clubs, multiples in each county. The project aims to broaden the traditional boundaries of a GAA club, turning clubs into hubs for health in the communities. It involves a partnership with Healthy Ireland, the National Office for Suicide Prevention, the HSE, and is proudly supported by Irish Life.
Clubs focus on a range of health topics, including healthy eating; mental fitness and emotion wellbeing; physical activity for non-playing members; gambling drug, and alcohol awareness (including becoming smoke-free clubs); engaging older community members; and the provision of games for persons with special needs and those from minority groups, among other things.
Participating clubs were asked to nominate their Healthy Club Heroes, this is someone who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in serving the health and wellbeing needs of their clubs’ members and the communities they serve. Dublin All Ireland winner, All Star, and Player of the Year nominee, Brian Fenton, was on-hand to present the recipients with their awards in Croke Park.
St John’s congratulated Seamus, saying he was a deserved winner of the award.