Last week we had the honour of hosting 2 events in Clarinbridge. The first event was Cul Camp for kids 10 and under and the second was our own Academy event for kids over 10. In total we hade 281 kids registered which is up from 260 last year. Expect to see the bright multicoloured top around the village and throughout Europe this summer.

Both events ran in parallel and were overseen by our head coaches Sean Kilduff and Niall Armstrong. Some clubs use cul camp as a fundraiser for the club but in Clarinbridge funds raised are invested back into the kids that week to give them the best experience we can. To give the best experience 20 senior coaches were secured from our club and some of our neighbouring clubs. In addition to the coaches there was 18 assistants who discovered that 6 year olds are not the best listeners. Niall and Sean also secured the talented Thomas Monaghan, Niamh Hannify and Gerry Spellman as guest coaches and Gearoid McInerney as a guest speaker.

The purpose of Cul Camp and Academy is to promote camogie and hurling and to enhance the kids skills. The morning session is mostly drills and the afternoon session is mostly games, especially for the older kids. Feedback from parents has been overwhelmingly positive and interest and skill levels both have been boosted over the last week.

Each day multiple parents volunteer to prepare the grounds and equipment, supervise lunches, direct the traffic, clean up and tidy away the equipment. Multiple parents volunteered Gazebos to keep the kids shaded for the week.

The weather was amazing for the week and Mike Kerrigan in Centra kindly donated ice creams for all the kids and coaches on Monday and Friday.

It was an amazing event to be part of and if anyone did not get a chance to volunteer this year I would highly recommend volunteering next year.