THE Creeslough community are coming together for Christmas with a series of fundraising events taking place over the holiday period.
The events are kicking off tomorrow (Friday, December 16) with a Christmas Fair in Massinass Hall organised by Creeslough National School, from 5 to 8pm, all funds raised will go to the Creeslough Community Fund.
There will be a Christmas movie night on Saturday, December 17 at 7pm, admission is free and it promises to be a night of fun for all of the family.
Naomh Michéal GAA will host a charity football match on Boxing Day at St Michael’s GAA pitch, the current Senior Team will take on the 2003 Intermediate Champions.
A raffle will take place in Rose’s Bar after the game with all money raised going to the Creeslough Community Fund.
On New Year’s Day the Doe Amateur Swimming Club are hosting a sponsored swim at Marble Hill Beach, also in aid of the fund.
Mairead Collett, a local behind the website Creeslough.com has been busy publicising the great work of the community, and is encouraging everyone to come along to the events.
Shock continues to ripple through the town in the wake of the tragedy but it “softens slowly with every hand of friendship”.
“When people come together, they get talking and it can be very therapeutic,” she said.
Mairead explained that following the tragedy the “whole world” reached out to the community to offer their support.
She believes they have now reached a “landmark moment” where they have started to focus on rebuilding themselves.
“Up until now communities across the world have been providing us with money, but now we are in the position to be able to stand up and run community events and raise some funds ourselves,” she said proudly.
Mairead added that this year will be even harder on their community as they also lost the much loved community volunteer Ben McFadden, who she described as a “great galvaniser of the community”.
Ben was the former Chairperson of the Creeslough Community Association and gave over 40 years to improving and promoting the Creeslough community, he was also heavily involved in organising Christmas events in previous years.
The strength and commitment of the Creeslough community permeates from one generation to the next.
Ben McFadden’s son Gerard McFadden who is living in Brisbane, Australia followed in his father’s footsteps and helped his community when they needed it most.
He fundraised close to half a million euro in response to the tragedy in his hometown.
Just like Gerard, Mairead follows in the footsteps of her family members. Her uncle started the website Creelough.com in 2000 as a “pet project”.
Mairead then took the reigns following his passing in 2019 and throughout lockdown she started posting more frequently. The website is now her pet project too, she said fondly.
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