Galway City & County Goes the extra Mile for GOAL this Christmas

People in Galway City, Gort, Ballinasloe and Tuam will be showing their support for GOAL over the Christmas period by running, walking or crawling the GOAL Mile.

The Galway and Tuam GOAL Miles both take place on Christmas Day; the Galway Mile on the NUIG Sports Grounds at Dangan from 10-1pm, the Tuam Mile at the Rugby Club from 11-12noon. The Ballinasloe Mile will take place on St Stephen’s Day on the Garbally Grounds (Scoil Mhuire entrance) from 2-3pm while the Gort Mile will take place on the 1st January in Coole Park from 1-2pm. All you have to do is turn up, run, walk or crawl and make a donation to GOAL.

For thousands of families, the annual GOAL fundraiser, now in its 27th year, has become as much a part of their Christmas tradition as mince pies and roast turkey. There’s no better way to deal with the excesses of the Christmas season than throwing on a pair of running shoes and doing a lap for GOAL.

Last year, GOAL Miles took place at 65 locations nationwide making it the biggest GOAL Mile ever. In total, over €400,000 was collected for GOAL’s projects across the developing world. However, this year’s event is going to be even bigger, with new Miles taking place in Tuam, Ballinasloe, Belfast, Monaghan, Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi to name just a few.

The flagship Mile will take place at the Belfield running track in UCD, where over 3,000 people are expected to turn out.

Life-long GOAL supporter and former world champion Eamon Coghlan will be running his 27th consecutive Mile this year at both the Tallaght and Belfield venues. Due to an unfortunate accident on the October Bank Holiday Monday, the day of the Dublin City Marathon, Eamon has been in a cast recovering from a broken foot. However, he’s insisted that the cast is removed on Christmas Eve so that he can take part in the GOAL Mile.
The first GOAL Mile was the brainchild of former GOAL chairperson and international athlete Noel Carroll and took place in the Phoenix Park, Dublin in 1982, where it will return again this year. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of his death, Noel’s four children all ran this year’s Dublin City Marathon in aid of GOAL and they will be hitting the track once again this Christmas morning.
GOAL is proud of the fact that since being established in 1977, we have strived to keep administration costs as low as possible – meaning that your donations have the maximum possible impact on the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Over the years, GOAL has spent €505 million delivering aid to 50 countries across the developing world. In that time we have also sent approximately 1400 GOALies to work alongside a huge number of local staff to help the world’s poor. To find out more information about your local GOAL Mile log onto www.goal.ie or call GOAL in Galway on 091 587901. Thank you most sincerely for your support to GOAL.