Big community effort as rugby fundraiser ends
THROUGHOUT June players and supporters of Sligo Rugby Club were clocking up the kilometres running, walking and even swimming for a fundraiser for the club and The Samaritans.
It raised much needed funds for both and the event, organised by Ross O’Boyle has raised over €9k on GoFundMe.
More than 10,000km has been travelled by players and supporters during the month as they surpassed within days the initial target of travelling the virtual distance to Murrayfield, the Millennium Stadium, Twickenham and back. The target was extended to Rome as the fundrasier brought the club together when everyone was staying apart.
On Saturday, it was club legend Aidan Buckley who took the event home over the finish line in Hamilton Park, flanked by his family and friends. The club said over 250 people donated to the fundraiser with some badly needed funds going to both Sligo Rugby Club and The Sligo Samaritans. The club thanked everyone who donated and who got involved.
The GoFundMe page is still open, Walk or Run with Sligo Rugby and Samaritans.
On Saturday in Hamilton Park, Fergus from The Samaritans said the event will really help the charity and thanked everyone who took part and helped out.
He said: “I just want to say thank you so much to Ross and to all at Sligo Rugby Club who helped with the event. We didn’t get the weather today but it was a great event in terms of fundraising and pulling the community together, especially in the Covid-19 times. “It was fantastic to see and thanks very much,” he added. Ross O’Boyle also expressed his gratitude. “Thanks for the support from The Samaritans side too. It was fantastic to get involved and it was such a good organisation to support in badly need of funding and obviously from our own rugby club perspective as well it’s always great to get some funds, especially in this Covid-19 landscape. “We’re all well short of funds at this stage of the season so thank you to all the supporters who came out in the rainy conditions and to all the famous supporters of Sligo Rugby on Twitter. Fair play to everyone getting active I think it’s probably the fittest WhatsApp group of supporters in the country by a mile at this stage! It’s been great, thank you to everyone who donated. Close to 300 people donated, it was a real community effort, thanks to everybody and the players, supporters, thank you all,” he added.