Founded in March 2024 and based in Loughrea, Co. Galway, we are a Special Olympics Sports club for athletes with intellectual disabilities aged 10yr+.This club was created due to the severe lack of resources for such athletes in the region. From Loughrea to Portumna to Gort and all between, there were zero clubs for these athletes to attend.

We opened our doors earlier this year and we already have 21 athletes that meet in St. Brigid s College Loughrea for weekly basketball training sessions. It s amazing. Most have never been part of a club before, so it s taken some adjustments but the smiles each week tell the only story that s needed. Some come for basketball, but most come for the social element of making friends and having fun! It was well past time and we re definitely here to stay!

We are fortunate to have an amazing group of volunteers who are committed to driving the club forward and growing it to accommodate every athlete in the area with as many sports as possible.

We are planning to have our first club event this year - it will be in the form of an U16 fun day scheduled for Saturday November 30^th.That will allow athletes that haven t yet joined a chance to come along and give it a go. We are looking to our community to help support us to make this day a memorable one for our athletes.

I'm writing to ask you to support our club with a donation for our fun day. We need everything from basketballs and sporting equipment to tshirts to medals to food so every donation no matter how big or small is greatly appreciated!

Our day will start with a fun warm up session with a qualified personal trainer followed by a skills session by qualified Basketball Ireland coaches. Athletes will start to get a feel for the game and you can see the new friendships start to form. We'll also have a chill out zone so athletes can opt to sit out any part of the day if it gets too overwhelming!

We'll break for lunch where we'll have some snacks available for everyone to enjoy. We all know how food bonds and there's nothing like snack time to bring the athletes together! We've been known to have a sing song or two in these breaks!!

We'll round off the afternoon with some matches to put on a show of what was learnt during the day. It's always amazing to see just how much our athletes pickup even after one session so it's exciting for parents to see what they can get from such a club.

Finally, the must anticipated awards ceremony. Every athlete will get a special medal, t-shirt and certification showing their participation at the event. They will also get a pin which anyone in the Special Olympics world knows, that's the utopian prize!

We also plan to provide all participants with a goody bag.

We ve indicated the main costs of running this event should you wish to sponsor something specific (if so desired, we would be delighted to include information of your sponsorship on our social media detailing the event). However, a donation of any amount will help us reach our goal and be greatly appreciated.

South Galway Lakers Hoop it Up Fun Day

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