‘IRELAND LIGHTS UP’ – THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST COMMUNITY WALKING INITIATIVE – RETURNS TO GAA CLUBS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH RTE’S OPERATION TRANSFORMATION AND THE SUPPORT OF GET IRELAND WALKING.
Over 350 clubs have so far registered to take part in ‘Ireland Lights Up’ on January 11th, 2023. The initiative encouragesall GAA clubs across the 32 counties to light up their walking tracks and bring communities together to walk and talk in a safe environment during the dark winter evenings, while contributing to their physical, mental and social wellbeing. As ever, a club participating in Ireland Lights Up will be showcased each week on RTE’s Operation Transformation.
The ‘Every Steps Counts Challenge’ delivered through the ‘MyLife’ app, in partnership with the Irish Life GAA Healthy Clubs programme returns in 2023 and three participating clubs from each province will win gear vouchers worth a total of €5,000, kindly provided by Irish Life (T&Cs apply).
If energy costs are likely to prevent your club from participating in Ireland Lights Up, it is acceptable to ask participants for a once-off optional donation to cover any additional lighting costs the club may incur (we recommend no more than €2 per person/family). You could leave a donation box by your walking track one night of the initiative to collect this.
Also, this year thanks to support from Healthy Ireland and Sport Ireland, a grant of approximately €100 per club (based on last year’s registration numbers) will be issued on completion of Ireland Lights Up 2023 to clubs that register their weekly walking numbers with Croke Park.
Click HERE to register 2023 ‘Ireland Lights Up’ and ‘Every Step Counts’ MyLife Challenge. (Both activities commence on Wednesday, January 11th, to coincide with the broadcast of the second episode of Operation Transformation on RTÉ.
By Sinéad Breen Donegal PRO Fri 23rd Dec
