Athlone is to open its arms to 7,500 athletes, singers, debaters, chess players, and artists from across the country due to participate in this weekend’s Community Games Festival.
The HSE Community Games Festival will be taking place over two weekends from August 15-17 and August 22-24 at Athlone Institute of Technology and Athlone Regional Sports Centre.
Over 7,500 children from all over Ireland will be participating in over 50 wide-ranging activities: from table tennis to debating, indoor soccer to duathlon, athletics to rugby.
The festival kicks off this evening (Friday ) with an opening ceremony in AIT followed by a disco, while Saturday and Sunday are jam-packed with a variety of sporting and artistic disciplines.
The HSE Community Games has teamed up this year with Healthy Ireland, the new national initiative promoting health and wellbeing throughout the country.
Speaking at the Community Games launch in Athlone Castle on July 22, Dr Cate Hartigan from the HSE said, “We are delighted to support the Community Games in 2014, and to make it part of our Healthy Ireland programme. Encouraging more children, families, and communities to be active, and to see the enormous benefits that this can bring, is one of the most important changes that we all want to see in Ireland. On top of that, the community participation and volunteerism that is an essential part of Community Games adds to our shared wellbeing in towns and villages nationwide. Well done to everyone involved and we’re looking forward to this year’s festival.”
The HSE Community Games would like to express their sincere thanks to all the volunteers from all over Ireland for their time and invaluable efforts in making sure that the HSE Community Games National Festival is such a successful event year after year.
