To the families, members and players of Garda Westmanstown Gaels, I hope this message finds you well.

Keith Robertson here, Chairperson of the juvenile section of Garda Westmanstown Gaels.

I’m contacting you today for two reasons; firstly, I would like to take the opportunity to wish all our members, families and players a happy Easter, I hope you are enjoying the break - and some long overdue sunshine.

Secondly, I am looking for your help. (Yes, yours!)

Each month, in advance of our club executive committee meeting, I contact all our juvenile team coaches and ask if they have any issues, ideas, suggestions or concerns that they would like to have raised and addressed - the number 1 recurring response is ‘Recruitment’ - in short, we need more players across all our boys and girls teams.

Very soon, the club will celebrate 20 years since our juvenile section began.

That’s 20 years of giving the best start to hundreds and hundreds of boys and girls from the areas of Lucan, Clonsilla, Hansfield and beyond.

20 years of volunteering by Geraldine and her army of coaches that have come together over the years to help the next generation of players coming through our club.

Many of those boys and girls that came through our Saturday morning GAA nursery have gone on to our adult teams, some have even gone on to represent their county at Minor and Senior level. A fact we are extremely proud of, and the common denominator? they all had the best start at Garda Westmanstown Gaels.

How can we possibly hope to repay this amount of dedication and kindness by our Nursery team?

Simple!…. Recruitment! And you can help.

From April to June, ie the next 12 weeks, we are calling on ALL our members to spread the word about our great club, - about our great facilities and our wonderful coaches. We are looking for parents to give back to the nursery as much of the help and support their own children have been fortunate to receive over the last 20 years.

How can I help, as a parent?

Well, Who do you know? think of all the other parents in your WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, school groups, friends, neighbours, social media, school teachers, any points of contact you might have away from our own club groups. Let the local community know about the good experience your own children have had coming to Westmanstown.

We are specifically looking for parents in the Lucan, Clonsilla, Hansfield areas who have boys or girls aged 4, 5, 6 and 7, tell them to come to Westmanstown at 10am every Saturday morning and give those children the best start that we know our club can provide.

Every great GAA club relies on the dedication of its volunteers to reach its true potential and our great club is no different.

In Westmanstown each week, a massive team of 100+ coaches show up and coach our sons and daughters. They arrange matches, devise training plans and the countless other things that come with the role of mentor. On our committees and groups many of our members freely give their time to arrange all of the background requirements for the smooth running of our club. Others support the club through sponsorship or providing professional services - no task is ever taken for granted and all are vital in the ongoing development of our club, and more volunteers are always welcome, but all our community; players, parents, and friends can help when it comes to recruiting players.

Any interested boys and girls are welcome to come along to team training sessions during the week and we encourage all our coaches to put aside an evening for players to ‘Bring a Friend’ to training and ask their parent groups for help with finding new players.

In order to effectively harness the power of our wider GAA community , for the next 12 weeks we are focussing our attention on our nursery with our 'Give them the best start at Garda Westmanstown Gaels' campaign. In order for this campaign to be a true success it needs your help. It will be more achievable with a lot of people doing a little rather than a little doing a lot.

To repeat again, We are specifically looking for parents in the Lucan, Clonsilla, Hansfield areas and beyond, who have boys or girls aged 4, 5, 6 and 7, tell them to come to Westmanstown at 10am every Saturday morning and give those children the best start that we know our club can provide.

Many thanks, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Kind regards

Keith Robertson

Chairperson (Juvenile Section)

Garda Westmanstown Gaels

086 838 5963