Social Inclusion 2011
Another year and another Social Inclusion Week with the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and DROP’s dilemma was how to create an event that could be better than last year? Well we decided we had done soccer (in 2010) so we would branch out and try something new, something different and something we know absolutely nothing about – TAG RUGBY!
As with the 2010 Soccer Tournament it had to be an interagency event as this is what Social Inclusion is all about and gives it that touch of something special. This means that the event was to be a combination of teams from various organisations just like DROP – providing services to people whose lives are affected by addiction. Following many phone calls the three agencies to be involved were The Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Outreach Project, the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Community Addiction Team and Bray Community Addiction Team. Each team being made up of Staff and Service Users.
Caoimhe Mc Mullan, Link Worker with the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Outreach Project was tasked with organising the day. Through a chance phone conversation between herself and the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council she made contact with the brilliant Stephen Gore of Leinster Rugby. Stephen was great from start to finish, he gave his time to provide training, rugby balls and tags so that each team could practice and make it look like they knew what they were doing on the day of the Tournament. Loughlinstown Leisure Centre played host to the event, free of charge we would like to add, on Thursday, 13th October and we had a very special guest in the guise of the Heineken Cup who came along compliments of Leinster Rugby. This gave a great buzz to all those in attendance and we even had the chance of a few paparazzi moments which we will cherish for a lifetime.
Through sheer skill, a lot of energy, sweat and near tears the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Community Addiction Team triumphed on the day and took the cup back to Sandyford. Not all was lost as the community of Dun Laoghaire had provided many spot prizes which were given out on the day and no one went home empty handed as everyone left with a medal for their participation. We may be stuck in the midst of a recession but that didn’t stop people putting their hands in their pockets and donating to us. You feel you have accomplished something big when you look back on an event and see a whole community come together to share generously and without a doubt the 2011 Social Inclusion Tag-rugby tournament saw this in bucket loads.
We would like to say a special thanks to The Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Local Drug Task Force, Tesco Bloomfields, Musgraves Sallynoggin, Dubray Books, Shaws, Tierneys, Remanés Jewellers, M&S, Costello Flowers, Treat Your Feet, O’Mahony & Ennis Pharmacy, Dun Laoghaire Pharmacy, John’s Corner Shop and Poppies for their generous support.
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