Now in its 27th year, the hugely popular GOAL Mile event will once again be taking place at a venue near you this Christmas. People from across Westmeath will be showing their support for GOAL over the Christmas period by running, walking or crawling a Mile at their local venue.
The Athlone Mile will take place at Athlone GAA Club, Pairc Chiaráin on Christmas morning from 11.15am until 12.45pm. The Mullingar Mile will take place at Mullingar Shamrocks GAA Club on Christmas morning from 10.30am until 12.30pm. The Moate Mile will take place at Castledaly GAA Club on St Stephen’s Day from 11am until noon.
For thousands of families, the annual GOAL fundraiser has become as much a part of their Christmas tradition as mince pies and roast turkey. There’s no better way to deal with the excesses of the Christmas season than throwing on a pair of running shoes and doing a lap for GOAL.
Last year, GOAL Miles took place at 65 locations nationwide making it the biggest GOAL Mile ever. In total, over €400,000 was collected for GOAL’s projects across the developing world. However, this year’s event is going to be even bigger, with new Miles taking place in Belfast, Tuam, Monaghan, Los Angeles, and Abu Dhabi to name just a few.
The flagship Mile will take place at the Belfield running track in UCD, where over 3,000 people are expected to turn out.
Life-long GOAL supporter and former world champion Eamon Coghlan will be running his 27th consecutive Mile this year at both the Tallaght and Belfield venues. Due to an unfortunate accident on Bank Holiday Monday, the day of the Dublin City Marathon, Eamon has been in a cast recovering from a broken foot. However, he’s insisted that the cast be removed on Christmas Eve so that he can take part in the GOAL Mile.
The first GOAL Mile was the brainchild of former GOAL chairperson and international athlete Noel Carroll, and took place in the Phoenix Park, Dublin in 1982, where it will return again this year. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of his death, Noel’s four children all ran this year’s Dublin City Marathon in aid of GOAL and they will be hitting the track once again this Christmas morning.
GOAL is proud of the fact that since being established in 1977, it has have striven to keep administration costs as low as possible – meaning that your donations have the maximum possible impact on the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Over the years, GOAL has spent €505 million delivering aid to 50 countries across the developing world. In that time it has also sent approximately 1,400 GOALies to work alongside a huge number of local staff to help the world’s poor. To find out more information about your local GOAL Mile log onto www.goal.ie or call GOAL on (01 ) 2809779.
