Cairde Chill Dreasa SO July 2019
As the summer of 2020 closes in, we’re now nearing ‘end game’ with Ionad Pobail Chill Dreasa, our planned new community Hub building at Gortacladdy that will underpin our Parish and Club far into the 21st century.
It’s been easily the biggest single undertaking in our Club or Parish’s history and is costing a good £1.4m to put in place. But it’s an essential project to help us do what’s needed to sustain community life here, to combat the many gaps and disadvantages Kildress faces and to grow and develop our Club as the leading community organisation locally. As we say, “It’s not something we MIGHT HAVE built … it’s something we HAD TO build.”
Ionad Pobail Chill Dreasa is a long-term project that’s taking ten years to scope, build and fund. So far, because of wonderful support locally, AND from far away, we’ve successfully negotiated every part of our development journey.
We’ve been awarded and have now drawn down £260,000 in grant aid (from LEADER Rural Development, Mid-Ulster Council, Landfill Tax and the Housing Executive). And we’re very grateful for it. But that still leaves us as a community picking up a whopping 82% of our hub building costs.
Two key parts of our fund-raising strategy are Cairde Chill Dreasa (The Friends of Kildress) and Patrúin Chill Dreasa (Kildress Patrons). Both are energised by that fundamental principle – that in the GAA ‘we put in, we don’t take out’.
Cairde members gift us money on a regular, usually monthly, basis and at a rate of £20 per month/£240 per year. That’s less than the cost two coffees, two pints of beer or a daily newspaper a week. Pátrúin meanwhile donate £5,000 to help make Ionad Pobail Chill Dreasa a reality. Crucially, all Cairde and Pátrúin money is ring-fenced for our development work … and is our key way of servicing the significant borrowings that underpin our Hub project.
If you’d like to find out more and/or come on board with us, then download the attached brochure and/or just speak to any Committee member. We’d be delighted to have you with us!
Ionad Pobail Chill Dreasa Bill-Board
