New initiative aims to make Galway people fit as fiddles
Lifestyle - Judy Murphy meets Michael Curley, a man enthused with the idea of getting communities active
A Galway initiative aimed at getting communities throughout the city and county to become more physically active is set to become the first of its kind in Ireland.
The Fit Towns Competition was launched in the Menlo Park Hotel on Monday evening by the CEO of the Sports Council John Treacy.
Communities who enter the competition will be asked to scrutinise the sporting and leisure-activity facilities they offer and assess gaps that exist. Then they will explore how these could be improved to increase people’s involvement in sport.
Fit Towns is spearheaded by the Galway Sports Partnership (GSP), and Michael Curley of that organisation explains that it’s about getting more people involved in community-based sporting activities.
There has been a marked improvement in people’s attitude to fitness and sport in recent years, he says, and the Fit Towns initiative is aimed at continuing that, with a particular focus on people who are in danger of being overlooked.
The Fit Town competition has three separate categories; the first is for towns and urban areas with populations of more than 2,000 people, the second is towns and villages with fewer than 200 people and the third category will take in Galway’s offshore islands.
“We are aware that the islands wouldn’t have the same sporting opportunities as other places, but we’d gauge them on how innovative they’d be,” explains Michael.
There’s a total prize fund of €15,000, which has been given by the Irish Sports Council, and the winner in each category will receive €5,000. So a town like Gort would be pitted against an area of similar-size population such as Ballinasloe, while various areas of the city, from Westside to Mervue, would compete against each other.
The idea for a Fit Towns contest was first mooted by a member of the Galway Sports partnership, Majella Ní Criocháin, who also happens to be on the body representing offshore islands, Comhdháil na nÓiléan. Having seen the success of the Tidy Towns competition model, the Sports Partnership group felt that something similar, geared at improving fitness in communities, offered real promise.
Other counties in Ireland have run different fitness initiatives through the years, but Fit Towns is the first competition of its kind. It will see representatives of the Galway Sports Partnership hold information evenings throughout the County between now and early November.
Applications from communities must be received by November 15 and the process will be twofold, explains Michael.
First up will be an audit of what’s going on in various clubs and activities in various areas. Then the contestants must submit an outline of what they intend to do to increase exercise and fitness opportunities for five weeks between January 19 and February 25, 2015.
That five-week period was selected because it ties in with RTÉ’s Operation Transformation – the Galway Sports Partnership has successfully organised activities in conjunction with the popular fitness series in the past.
“Getting fit is very topical at that time of the year because of Operation Transformation, and also January is a time of year when people want get out and get active,” says Michael.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.