Éire Óg Greystones joined the Healthy Club Initiative in 2020. The purpose of this Initiative is to promote the health and well-being of our players, members and the community as a whole. Within Éire Óg there was already considerable good practice in place, including healthy snacks after camogie blitzes, outdoor cinema and camping community event, attending St Patrick’s day parade, Strictly Come Dancing competitions and supporting sponsored walks.

There are many activities underway within the club to support our Health Club Initiatives.

Senior Club Players Delivery Groceries & Prescriptions
With the onset of Covid 19 and the first lockdown, Éire Óg Senior players and club members set up a community volunteer group to support those cocooning and the most vulnerable in our community. As part of that our volunteers helped with daily chores such as collecting shopping, picking up prescriptions, and running necessary errands for those that were cocooning or vulnerable in our local community.

Inclusivity Day
Gary Lehane attended GAA 4 ALL Webinar and following that we hosted an Inclusivity day at the Club. We had significant support and attendance from within the club including club coaches, healthy club representatives and Club GPO Kevin Spain. Members and helpers from Bray Lakers attended and participated enthusiastically in various football and hurling drills and games. Feedback from all participants was extremely positive and it was agreed that this would become a more regular event post-lock down restrictions. https://www.gaa.ie/nationalinclusionday

M.N.A Programme
The M.N.A Programme aims to increase the number of women coaching. The Programme is in partnership with Sport Ireland’s Women in Sport. The M.N.A Programme primarily looks at the development of female Mentors and Coaches within Clubs around the country. It acts as an important step in assisting Clubs to ensure the retention of players away from the playing field and the recruitment of females and that they pass on their knowledge and experience to future players through coaching. The role which women can play in passing on their intrinsic knowledge of the game to young players in particular is a key reason behind this programme and the part which they can play as positive role models for young players.

Éire Óg Greystones, as one of the first clubs to participate in the programme, were lucky enough to nominate two female Mentors, Helen O’Regan and Olive Farrell, who were upskilled across a wide range of areas including communications, mentoring and volunteer development. Mentors were tasked with identifying new female Coaches within their Club and to deliver the Tesco Hurl With Me initiative as part of their induction training. Throughout this turbulent year these M.N.A Mentors have continued their development and upskilling.

Tesco Hurl with Me Initiative
20 new camogie parents completed the first club Tesco hurl with me programme. The programme was run by Helen O’Regan and Olive Farrell as part of their M.N.A. programme training of Leadership for Women in Sports programme. The Hurl with me programme was a great 2 days of skills building, confidence growing and engagement with new parents within the club. Great feedback was received from the programme participants and it was seen as a fun way to engage with the sport by parents, kids and coaches. It is something the club will endeavour to roll out more of in the future.

Almost 50 M.N.A Clubs will be rolling out the Tesco Hurl With Me initiative. The initiative allows parents and guardians to train with their daughter in their local Club, learning the basic skills of the game under the supervision of their M.N.A Mentor.

It runs for four weeks providing parents with the necessary skills to continue playing with their daughter(s) for years to come. It also provided opportunities for parents to become involved in their daughter’s Club as a volunteer and the initiative also aims to identify female participants who may wish to continue on and complete the M.N.A Coaching element and become qualified coaches.

New sponsors Tesco have been generous in supplying our M.N.A Clubs with an equipment pack to assist them with the delivery of this initiative aswell as providing support and promotion to Clubs in their communities.
https://camogie.ie/news/tesco-hurl-with-me-initiative-swinging-into-action/