HSE COMMUNITY GAMES REPORT First County Meeting Wexford Community Games held its first meeting of the new year last week to discuss the 2014 season of activities which are set to get underway towards the end of the month. There are many changes this year and the national festival of events will be held over two weekends in August. The May festival is gone and all the activities which usually take place over that weekend will now be split and incorporated into the August programmes. Counties had got used to the three weekends and they were much more relaxed and it was easier to get round to see the various competitions. Now we are once again being thrown into two very busy and packed programmes. It has yet to be decided how many events children can compete in at the national finals. Areas will be notified as soon as National give us the details on same. Condolences Wexford Community Games observed a minutes silence at the county meeting for the late Toddy Bohanna, Loughnageer; Willlie Stafford, Adamstown and Liam (Foxy) Reville, Belvedore Grove, Clonard, all of whom passed away recently and whose children were involved in Community Games in their respective Areas. May they rest in peace. Affiliation Forms A reminder to all Area Secretaries to return Area Affiliation Forms by Friday, January 25. Forms to be forwarded to county secretary John Carr. The Area fees of €165 to accompany the forms. Downloads New rules and amendments to rules were updated in November 2013. These can be downloaded on communitygames.ie It is vital that each Area make themselves familiar with the new changes (which will be noticeable as they will be in red print) and ensure that their team managers and co-ordinators are also aware of the changes. It is not up to the county officers to inform Areas of all rule changes. Keep up to date with all that is happening in Wexford by checking the Wexford Community Games website where you can download Area Affiliation forms, panel sheets, county Bye-Law rules and other forms. Garda Vetting A reminder to all volunteers working with children, either as a team manager/co-ordinator, referee, official etc, that they must ensure that they have completed a Garda Vetting Form. There is still a long delay in getting the forms back so now might be the time to get that form filled in and sent off, before the new seasons games get underway. If you have not completed a form for over 3 years, then you need to re-apply again. National Festival 2014 Make a note of these dates. The first weekend in Athlone takes place from August 15 to August 17 and the second weekend from August 22 to August 24. The swimming events will be held on the first weekend. Provisional Calendar of Events A provisional calendar of events was handed out at the last county meeting.The first event to take place for the new year will be the Draughts events in Bree hall on Saturday, February 1, followed by the Chess events in Enniscorthy on February 6 and the Badminton finals in Taghmon on Saturday, February 8. The Cross Country events take place in New Ross on February 9 . The county swimming finals will take place in Enniscorthy on April 15, the county under 14 Table Quiz in the Riverbank house hotel on April 15, the county Team Finals on Saturday, April 26, the county Gymnastics in Enniscorthy on May 25 and the county Athletic finals in Bree on June 14. Leinster Games A meeting of Leinster Community Games will take place on Tuesday, January 28. Now that the national finals have been changed, Leinster too will need to amend their dates and finals accordingly. Wexford will have the Bye this year with Kilkenny and Carlow meeting in round one of all competitions and Wexford travelling away to meet the winners in round 2. The first round of Leinster games will be played between May 15 and May 27 and the second round of games between May 30 and June 11. The Leinster semi-finals and finals will take place in Longford on Saturday and Sunday June 28 and 29. Healthy Events Awards 2014 Applications are now being accepted for entry into the healthy events awards for 2014. Forms to be submitted by February 28. Once forms have been received, Areas will be sent information on what they need to do and how to send in the first submission. The HSE health promotion service has worked with Community Games and the purpose of the healthy events award is to encourage Community Games Areas through their events to use creative, sustainable ways to impact positively on the health of the wider community, participants, volunteers and their families. To be in contention for the award, an Area must show that their events are health promoting . Ideas on how this can be done will be available on the Community Games website and Areas may choose their own ideas too. There are three main awards, €1250 (gold award) €1000 (silver award) and €750 bronze award. In addition there is also prizes of up to €500 to Areas judged to have made a worthy effort to improve health promoting aspects of the events. Further information is available on communitygames.ie o/or by calling 090-6433388. Anne Cowman PRO Wexford Community Games
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 15:13:29 +0000
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