Mayo community lotto player celebrates €17,400 jackpot win
SWINFORD Community Lotto is celebrating a big jackpot winner.
Emer Mullarkey has scooped €17,400 in the popular local lotto.
This week, Martin Tunney, director, Swinford Amenity Park, and Vanessa Crawford, secretary, Swinford Killasser LGFA, presented a cheque for €17,400 to Emer Mullarkey (Muldowney).
Emer was delighted to receive the cheque and thanked the amenity park for developing such a fabulous facility in the town. Her children use the facility at least three times a week with soccer and Gaelic training.
The seller of the winning ticket, Kennedy's Eurospar in Swinford, was presented with a cheque for €870 (5%).
Swinford Community Lotto funds the development and maintenance of Swinford Amenity Park. The facility boasts an excellent Gaelic pitch, used this week by Mayo GAA Under 16s for games between Laois and Derry, the Mayo Gaelic Masters v Sligo, in addition to being used daily by an increasing number of clubs from the region.
In addition to the pitch, the park has a large, full standard astroturf, fully lit with new LED lighting, constructed by Premier Pitches and funded by North East Leader.
A new car park, fully surfaced and lined, accommodating 53 car spaces, was completed last month, funded by the lotto funding and Clár.
The new track will be fully completed in the next number of weeks with the surface and lining. And the centre also boasts a 560m fully surfaced walkway around the pitch, with all works completed by local contractor Frank Harrington.
The facility is maintained by Pat O'Neill and the excellent work from the Community Employment Scheme.
The girls Gaelic club (Swinford Killasser LGFA) manage the community lotto draws and pick up and check the tickets. In return for their diligent work down through the years, the club gets free access to the Gaelic pitch from 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and free access to the high demand astro on Wednesdays and Fridays from 6 p.m.
Club volunteers continue to perform a vital role in managing the lotto and without this help there would not be open gates and constant improvements at the amenity park.
Like other community facilities, this year, increases in electricity, insurance and water charges have been challenging for the amenity park and continued support for the facility is most appreciated.
The park committee ask the community to support local businesses in Swinford and Tara Cafe in Castlebar.