Nuts About Charity fun cycle raises €25k

The Nuts About Charity Fancy Dress Cycle, which took place in July has raised a whopping €25,000, bringing the total to €141,000 over the past four years. The money was equally divided and the cheques were presented to the deserving local charities by the fundraising committee last Saturday night in Nuts Corner, main sponsor of this year's cycle. The local charities benefiting this year are: Athlone Wheelchair Association, Athlone Rape Crisis Centre's Housing Fund, St. Hilda's and Athlone Chernobyl Project. A contribution was also donated to the recently re-formed Athlone Pipe Band. The committee members are delighted that the fun fancy dress cycle raised so much money this year despite the economic climate and are incredibly grateful to everyone who donated so generously. They extended a special word of thanks to the many cyclists who participated in this year's event, not only did they brighten up the streets of Athlone on the weekend of the Triathlone entertaining locals and visitors alike with their colourful cavalcade of fancy dress costumes but they contributed to raising a significant amount of money in these tough times for the chosen local charities. The committee would like to sincerely thank the generous sponsors for their contribution: Nuts Corner, Main Sponsor, Workshop Direct (M & K Irwin), Q Nite-Club, Paddy Powers, AIB, Dunnes Stores, Karma Nite Club, Dermot Brennan of DB Cycles, Bank of Ireland 'Give together Initiative(Cyril Healy), The Joke Shop, Temple Printing, Anton Shevlin of Athlone Sweets and Flagline. A lot of planning took place behind the scenes in the weeks building up to The cycle and the committee would like to extend a big thank-you to all involved. Thanks also to the local Gardai, the Fire Service, motorbike and bicycle stewards who gave generously of their time on the day. Thanks also to Chris Flicker and Alan Earls for filming and producing the 2009 event DVD. This is on sale for €5 per copy and all monies raised will go into the 2010 fundraising pot. The original fundraising committee of Brendan Conroy, Liam McCormack, Declan O' Callaghan, Barry McCormack and Mickey Horan alongside new committee members Anne Marie Cunningham and Ger O' Rourke intends to continue organising the cycle as long as the people and businesses of Athlone keep supporting it. They will also continue donating the money raised to different local charities. They believe this will create an opportunity for lesser well-known charities to raise their profile and receive much needed funding. They invite local charities to submit details of their charity if they wish to be considered for funding from the 2010 charity cycle. Please contact Brendan Conroy, Nuts Corner or Liam McCormack, Menswear, Athlone, for further information.