€117K Grant Announced for Craughwell AC!
The club is absolutely delighted to learn yesterday that it has been awarded a LEADER grant of €117,000 towards the provision of a toilet block and community room on its 8-acre grounds adjacent to Craughwell national school.
Provision of toilets for our large membership is 1 of the priority needs of the club and this grant is a massive boost for the club’s ambitious development plans.
The grant is the second LEADER grant approved this year, with funding of €15,000 granted in January towards the recently completed perimeter walking pathway around our grounds.
The application for funding for the building was a more complicated process and the club had to go through a rigorous procurement process via the eTenders website. The club appreciates the diligence and assistance of the officials in both Galway Rural Development and the Department of Rural and Community Development and the work done by one of the parents in the club Kieran Quinn of Sean Dockery & Associates who steered the club through the procurement process.
The club are in the process of raising additional finance for the project – primarily in the form of a loan from Community Finance Ireland but also will be driving some fundraising towards it.
Parents are again encouraged to support our club Lotto which is a cornerstone of our facility funding. You can sign-up for as little as €20 which would leave your account every 10 weeks.
The club’s policy is to fund the development primarily with grants and debt – and our Lotto income is a key part of repaying that debt. The result is that we can provide facilities immediately to current members rather than fundraising for years and providing them when perhaps the children whose parents funded them have left the area.
The grant-aided building is not the only part of imminent development plans – the club has applied for a Sports Capital Grant for extending its sprint track into a J-track and all going well with the grant process, work would start on that early next year. The club also has a grant of €72,000 towards a 36x24m sportshall which it hopes to commence once the toilet block and community room project is complete.