Cow Dung Bingo in Laois village!
Cow Dung Bingo fundraisers for the Castletown Sports Feld Committee are Olive Cuddy, Tony Ryan and Matty Cuddy Photo: Stan Henderson
A HUGE crowd attended the Castletown Summer Festival where a variety of fun activities including bouncy castles, hook a duck, several other traditional games and live music took place on the village’s lush green.
A children’s art competition was also a main feature of the fun-packed day on Sunday 29 June.
In a unique fundraising idea, the community is selling tickets for Cow Dung Bingo to raise funds for the Castletown sports field. The field is divided into squares of equal size and, on Sunday 10 August, a calf will be let into the field. Wherever it drops a dung, the ticket holder of that square will win €1000. Raffle tickets are also available for ten prizes of €100 each.
Castletown Community Centre chairperson Nicola Kirwan, and secretary, Mary Peelo rounded up the day’s events for the .
Nicola explained how the successful event came about. She said: “The vintage group wanted to reinvigorate the festival they used to have on the green where they would display vintage vehicles and hold a family fun day.
“We’ve had family fun days over the years since the last vintage festival, which was twenty years ago, but there’s a huge amount of organisation involved so it has missed a few years.
“The vintage club got all of the Castletown community groups together to make it a huge community effort, and it has worked out brilliantly. The local groups involved are Castletown GAA, Naomh Éamann Camogie Club, Tidy Towns, Vintage Club, Community Centre, Castletown ICA Guild, all three local primary schools, and Stepping Stones playschool. All of the groups made a huge effort to promote the day.”
Mary oversaw the children’s art competition prizes which had over 100 entries which were judged by three of the village’s four local artists as artist Monica White was unavailable on the day.
Mary said: “We invited our local artists Antoinette Breen, Monica White, Mike Rafter and Liam Phelan to display their art in the community centre and to judge the art competition. Their paintings are absolutely phenomenal. The idea of the children’s art competition was to see what budding artists we have in our community. The standard of the art the children created was extremely high and the three judges had quite a job in choosing the winners.
“The schools involved are Castletown Primary School, Pike of Rushall National School, Paddock National School and Stepping Stones preschool. It was great that the children could see that there are professional artists in their local community and to see their exhibition and what they can aspire to do themselves.
“Also, our community is very sport orientated and successfully so over the years, so it’s great that the festival can appeal to everyone from as young as three years of age and that all different interests are catered for.” Both Nicola and Mary praised Castletown Primary School teacher Neasa Ozenbrook who was the driving force behind the children’s art competition.
The children’s art competition winners were Cian Cuddy, Callie Mai Delaney, Saoirse Feeney, James Lanham and Thaila Doheny. The highly recommended winners were Rebecca Feighery, Doireann Cuddy, Nell Fitzpatrick, Cáit Delaney, Heidi Grace, Ella Schuh and Gracie Mai Bergin.
The organisers wish to thank everyone who supported the Castletown Summer Festival. Tickets for the Cow Dung Bingo are available from the Castletown Community Sports Field Development Facebook page costing €10 each or six for €50.
