Community hub gets locals on board for a night of fun and games
THE Bray community group, Common Ground, which is dedicated to promoting a co-operative, mindful and ecological lifestyle, introduced lots of great classes and events in January, with the first familiar to anyone who spent Christmas around the Monopoly board.
Board Night took place on Saturday, January, 7 and a keen group of gamers arrived, boxes under their arms, prepared for battle. Well, it was all good, clean fun.
The event was organised by Keelin Nielsen Donohoe and Alexandra Heath with the aim of giving people the opportunity to socialise freely.
Keelin, who works as a MindBody Reconnect Therapist from her practice, The Grethe Clinic, explained the ethos at Common Ground and how the Board Night came about.
“Common Ground is a community hub that hosts potlucks and market days to give people a chance to meet their neighbours, and get to know new people from the area,” she said. “It has a massive focus on sustainability, community and skill-sharing.
“Members and others are welcome to use the space to teach classes and host events, so there is always something going on in the building.”
Keelin was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when she was 18, and after many years of severe symptoms she was prevented from living her life as she wished.
She began researching and training in different modalities and came across the MindBody Reconnect and saw results within a few weeks.
“I run an online clinic called The Grethe Clinic, helping people with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, depression etc to recover. A huge issue I see in my work is a total lack of fun and connection leading to a lot of loneliness. So that’s my interest in running these events. I want to help prevent the illnesses I see in my job, as well as helping people to recover from them,” she said.
Co-host Alexandra is currently training to become a nutritional therapist and cares massively about giving back, and creating sober and free events in the community to have fun.
“We’re both in our 20s and saw everyone – but especially people our age – hit very hard by the pandemic, creating massive social anxiety. So we hope these gatherings help to start to work against that,” Keelin added.
They are running a monthly board game night and the next one will be on Saturday, February 10 from 7-9pm. There is also a market on Saturday, January 27 at 11.30am at Common Ground in Beverly Studios, Church Terrace (opposite the Royal Hotel).
They also organise an After Dark walking group, which runs every second week, with the next one taking place on Monday, January 29 at 6:30pm, from the north beach car park.
All of these gatherings are free and you can attend with friends/family or solo. To stay up to date, follow @thegretheclinic on social media, and @ commongroundbray.