Offaly Community Services Group Ready for 2019 National Lottery Good Causes Awards
Representatives from the Offaly-based Shannonbridge Community Services Group have presented to the National Lottery Good Causes Awards 2019 judging panel as part of the final process of the competition.
Attention now turns to the Awards event which takes place next Saturday 2nd November. The judging panel, chaired by broadcaster and businesswoman Norah Casey, recently spent two days in Athlone meeting the 36 finalists from all over Ireland, who each received their trophy for being a national finalist.
Pictured are Liz Duffy and Caitriona Slattery from Shannonbridge Community Services who are among the 36 finalists from all over Ireland in the National Lottery Good Causes Awards 2019. The awards final will take place on Saturday 2nd November in the Clayton Burlington Hotel in Dublin. Each of the seven category winners will receive €10,000 and the overall Good Cause of the Year will receive an additional €25,000. Photo Martina Regan
The National Lottery Good Causes Awards honour the inspiring work and achievements of thousands of projects, clubs and individuals from all over Ireland who with the help of National Lottery Good Causes funding have had an extraordinary impact on their local communities. Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes all over the country.
Shannonbridge Community Services Group was established in 2003 to seek to improve access to services for people living in the area who would be socially isolated or marginalized, while trying to invigorate the quaint village of Shannonbridge. Using National Lottery funding the group were able to open a facility for the provision of supports and services which is now very much at the heart of the community. It also enabled the group to expand their services and meet the ever changing needs of a small rural community with an aging population. This project will contest the Community category on the night.
The awards have six categories: Sport, Health & Wellbeing, Heritage, Arts & Culture, Community and Youth. A seventh category, Irish Language, will have a special award to be announced on the night at the Awards final, in recognition of outstanding work done in the promotion of the Irish Language.
Each national category winner will receive €10,000 while the overall Good Cause of the Year will get an additional €25,000 on top of this. The winners will be announced at a Gala Awards event in the Clayton Burlington Hotel in Dublin on Saturday 2nd November.
The judging panel also included Nuala Carey, Lotto presenter Michael Hayes, Head of Marketing at the National Lottery, Paul Bradley, PR & Corporate Communications Manager of the National Lottery, Jennifer Crowe, CSR manager of the National Lottery and Seamus Griffin, CEO of the Griffin Retail Group and representing the National Lottery Retail Council. The judging took place in the Hodson Bay Hotel.
Awards chairman Norah Casey said the judging panel had an incredibly hard job deciding on the winners for the awards and said: “We were blown away by the 36 presentations. Each of the groups we met are doing amazing work in their communities and were all winners in their own rights. The work that is being done all over Ireland with the help of National Lottery Good Causes funding is truly humbling and outstanding. I wish the representatives from all 36 organisations all the best of luck on the night”
More information on the finalists and the National Lottery Good Causes Awards can be found at www.lottery.ie/
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language. In total more than €5.4 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 32 years ago. In 2018 alone, more than €228 million was raised; the equivalent of €620,000 a day in support for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.
About National Lottery Good Causes funding
This National Lottery’s contribution to Good Causes has increased over the past three years with €213 million raised in 2016 increasing to more than €225 million in 2017. Last year more than €228 million was raised by participants of National Lottery games all over the country. This equates to alsost €19 million every month and about €625,000 a day raised for Good Causes.
The monies raised for Good Causes are combined with central Government funds and are used to boost vital finance streams such as the Sport Ireland High Performance and national governing body grants; the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport’s Sports Capital Programme; HSE National Lottery grants; as well as funding distributed by both the Arts Council and Heritage Councils among many other government grant schemes.
About the National Lottery Good Causes Awards 2019
The National Lottery Good Causes Awards honour the inspiring work and achievements of thousands of projects, clubs and individuals from all over Ireland who with the help of National Lottery Good Causes funding have had an extraordinary impact on their local communities.
This competition was launched in February this year and was open to community projects and organisations who received Good Causes funding in the years 2016 and 2017. From an original pool of more than 488 entries 144 County winners were announced in April and 36 Regional winners in May.
