*** Slight Change in Starting Point - Instead of gathering at the carpark at the Village Inn in Kilchreest people should instead meet at Castledaly Church which is closeby - just to continue through the village of Kilchreest for another three miles 'til you see a church on left-hand side and that is Castledaly Church***.

Organiser Marguerite tell us that for runners it will be about a 10k run and the runners will know they have ran a good workout when they return to the Church.

See map indicating where Castledaly Church is below. Meet at 11:00am on Monday next the 1st June (Bank Holiday Monday)

Castledaly Church Map

With such beautiful weather predicted for next while some people may be interested in a very worthwhile fundraising event which will take place next Monday (Bank Holiday) in support of the APA Charity. Local woman Marguerite Brady and her co-volunteers have decided not to travel to the Women's mini-marathon on that day but instead to host a local event on beautiful forest and mountain roads around Kilchreest near Loughrea. This is a non-competitive run walk that would be suitable for all grades of fitness. Marguerite give full details of the event below along with some information on the charity and we hope that some of you will be in a position to support their efforts.

Read on...

About the Organiser

Greetings to you and all in Athenry AC club and beyond.

Marguerite Brady is my name and I am from Loughrea.

I’m a nurse by trade specialising in cancer care and am secondly a teacher of Natural Medicine. I have travelled the world extensively and ended up working in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Calcutta and Thailand with the poorest of the poor. I LOVED EVERY MOMENT IT and gained much more then I received.

When I returned home I came across an Irish charity that is totally committed to one thing only and that was addressing the pandemic of the AIDS holocaust. I know that might sound very severe but just let this statistic sit in your mind for one minute - over 15 million children in Ethiopia are without parents, homes, education or a future and the most frightening thing is that they are only 9 hours away from us. There are 15 million orphans in the whole of Africa and highest percentage of orphans are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since 2002 a group of us from Galway have worked tremendously hard to create awareness of the pandemic and to fund raise with the APA (AIDS Project for Africa) charity (more about the charity below). We have successfully run the MONSTER ORGANIC BALL for the past 4 years and we hope to do it again this October, but enough about us and more about the charity.

Get On Yer Boots...

About The Event

We, the volunteers of APA, decided not to go to Dublin to do the mini-marathon this year but to host a local event so that everyone could participate locally and give to a worthy cause at the same time. As people walk they can take in the stunning views of Galway Bay and parts of County Clare. We will do up a Google map later today for all to see. I promise you that whoever attends will certainly not be disappointed. The route can be run, walked or jogged or rambled along at your own pace. It will take some 35 to 45 minutes for some people to complete and for others it may take two hours. It’s however you wish it to be. We will provide water, fruit and some chocolate biscuits at the end for all and we would like to invite people afterwards to come and have lunch at the Village Inn. We will get a special rate for all who attend the event.

This event is happening on June the 1st - Bank Holiday Monday next. The plan is to meet at the carpark at the Village Inn in Kilchreest at 11.00am on June 1st for a 2 hour walk, run or jog as you wish. The best way to come to Kilchreest is from the Loughrea direction. As you come into Loughrea from the Galway direction, take the exit for the town at the first roundabout. Then drive into the town until the road naturally turns off to the right towards Supervalu or the lake. At that point take the road signposted for Gort which is out by the lake. The lake will be on your left hand side. Stay on that road for three miles until you enter the village of Kilchreest. Right after the PURPLE building on your right you will see a pub called the Village Inn which you park and we will converge and merge together there for 11:00am sharp.

Kick off will be 11.15am. You can have full use of the bars bathroom facilities, water and snacks if you need them. We will have donation boxes in the car park to allow you to make a donation to APA - please be as generous as you can afford. People may also choose to run, walk or jog for their own chosen charity – it’s totally up to them.

Africa

About The Charity

APA (AIDS Partnership with Africa) is truly compassionate, committed and proactive charity in addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis. The charity’s focus is to alleviate the suffering of all those affected or infected by the AIDS virus. Secondly APA focuses strongly on the rights of children in terms of providing a secures homes, food and a return to education 100's of children. APA has trained counsellors to support children to come to terms with the grief and psychological trauma of loosing one or both parents to AIDS. They also address women’s rights and assist hospitals and clinics with protective materials, testing kits and counsellors. APA also work locally with all sectors of the community from all church leaders, government leaders, to local leaders, healers, doctors, nurses, teachers and fishermen and so on to educate them on how HIV is contracted, how to prevent oneself from becoming infected and, if infected, how to live positively with that and how not to infect another.

All employees of the charity are local people who have qualifications in sociology, medicine, administration, accountancy skills and so on. Local people are employed for they know the people, the culture, behaviour and religious beliefs of the people. The charity website is just fantastic to Google. Why not have a look at www.apa.ie. The office email is [email protected] and the administrator is Owen Lambert who spent over 35 years of his life working in Ethiopia. Office phone no is 01-4064316 or 086 1036717.

APA WORK WITH THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.