Alex Plumb of Letterkenny competing at the Community Games in 2019
There are fears that the Community Games organisation in Letterkenny may be forced to disband.
A rescheduled annual general meeting takes place on Monday night after a previous attempt three weeks ago failed to fill vacancies in the committee.
Existing committee members have warned that a repeat on Monday would spell the end.
“Unless we get people in who will give a helping hand going forward, there’ll be no Community Games in Letterkenny,” committee member Sean Crossan told Donegal Live.
“There are thousands of children who are possibly affected if the organisation ceased to exist.
“The committee oversee the organisation of the Community Game, the venues and what have you.”
The three main officers from the outgoing committee, chairperson Gerry Davenport, secretary Agnes Devenney and treasurer Bernie Brennan have all indicated that they are vacating their positions.
Crossan and Marian Cullen are the remaining executive members.
Leterkenny's Arlene Crossan competing at Community Games in 2016
“We had hardly anyone at the AGM three weeks ago,” Crossan said. “We’ve had a small committee doing a lo of work up to now. Most years, people would stay on and we’d just mix it up a bit., Now, though, we’re looking at the prospect of the Community Games being no more in Letterkenny unless we get people in to help us out.”
The Community Games were founded in 1967 with 3000 people taking part in the first finals, which were held in Santry. For a long part of the history, the national finals were held in Mosney before being moved to Athlone.
A wide range of sports and individual activities are catered for in Community Games.
From athletics, badminton, cycling, football, swimming and tennis to activities like art, singing, model making and quiz, Community Games caters for so much.
The Letterkenny area spans a large catchment stretching towards the Silver Tassie at one end and going out to Lurgybrack, Bomany, Glencar, Leck and out the dual carriageway on the other ends of the town.
The area was split into east and west for a period before being re-amalgamated into one around a decade ago.
“I fear for the future if we don’t get sufficient numbers to form a committee,” the outgoing chair, Davenport, said this week.
“We have no problem with assistance from sporting organisation when we organise events, but we need a committee before we can organise anything.
“People can say maybe Covid was a problem as people sat back and took a different attitude to things.
“A lot of things have moved on. Children have bigger opportunities now with development squads in all sports. Maybe, just maybe, children and parents are looking at other sporting opportunities as being better. Pre-Covid, we did see a fall off and a reluctance to get involved anyway.”
The rescheduled AGM takes place on Monday night at 8.30pm in the Station House Hotel.
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