Mayo island all set for annual St Colman’s Garden Fête on Sunday

THE annual garden fête at St Colman’s Care Centre on Achill Island takes place tomorrow afternoon with lots of fun and entertainment for all the family is guaranteed.

The proceeds from the weekend’s events provides essential funding towards daily operational costs at St Colman’s – the running of the day centre and the home meals service. As always, the garden fête is a highlight of the summer in Achill and is enormously popular. For next to 40 years locals and visitors alike have enjoyed the day’s festivities all the while supporting this vital resource.

The Fête remains the main annual fundraiser for St Colman’s. There will be lots of fun and entertainment for all the family is guaranteed at next Sunday’s fête; with all the usual attractions - wheel of fortune, bric-a-brac, tombola, books, arts and crafts, cake stall, and plenty more besides including quality seafood, boxty, barbecue and afternoon high tea. There’s plenty also for children with games, face painting, bouncy castles, candy floss and novelties, etc and a chance win big in the raffle with prizes including a €1,000 cash, sponsored by Molloy’s Lifestyle Pharmacy and a €600 voucher sponsored by Sweeneys, Achill Sound, €300 vouchers from Harvey Norman, etc. There will be live entertainment throughout the afternoon with local and guest entertainers.

READ: Children and families in Mayo to benefit from €112,500 for community counselling services

St Colman’s are delighted to be part beneficiaries of the proceeds from a new book 'Celtic Nature Poetry in Word and Image' by Alexandra van Tuyll. Alexandra will be signing her book at the fete on Sunday next.

Super Bingo

There will be a Super Bingo on Monday, July 28 at 8.30pm sharp, and you can share in the €1,300 prize money including a guaranteed Jackpot of €500. There will be spot prizes and a raffle. Doors open at 7.45pm.

The Fête begins at 12 noon on Sunday and patrons are asked to co-operate with stewards for parking, to ensure easy and safe access for all and minimal delay to traffic. Parking on the main road approaching St Colman’s from Keel will be on the left-hand side only. People are asked to park their vehicles carefully, to ensure that traffic on this very busy road is not disrupted. Vehicles can also gain access to St Colman’s to drop people off by informing the stewards on the gate of their need. Vehicles should turn right at the entrance and after dropping off passengers proceed around the circle to the exit and park safely. There will be very limited availability of parking spaces at the rear of St. Colman’s for disabled drivers only.

Drivers attending the fete who would need to park within, must book in advance by contacting St Colman’s by Friday, July 25 at 098 43248.

Range of services

St Colman’s Care Centre has provided care and social support services to older people and people with disabilities within the parish of Achill since 1986. The range of services include day care, therapies and social activities. In addition, up to 200 hot meals are delivered to homes weekly. The services aim to enable people to live as independently as possible within their own community, and to provide support to families and carers. St Colman’s also promotes active and healthy ageing by facilitating access to a range of social opportunities, information and advocacy. The service is operated in co-operation with the Health Service Executive, Community Employment Schemes and with the support of the Achill Community.

St Colman’s has been boosted in recent weeks by the announcement of grants for necessary facilities improvements from Pobal and BIM FLAG grants. The Board are grateful to Minister Dara Calleary and his department and local representatives for their support with these grant allocations.

The need for this locally based service continues to be as relevant today as it was in the mid 1980’s when St Colman’s first opened its doors in Keel. The generous support of the public will be appreciated for this worthwhile community project.