After a gruelling 10km of running up a mountain, through ponds and rivers, crawling through cow dung and mud, running through electrified wires, running through a forest of snipers armed with pellet guns, and a final climb over a 10 foot wall amongst many other obstacles and challenges, the Wexford Minor Footballers and Mentors completed the tortuous Hell and Back Challenge on Sunday last, Jan 26th.
The huge effort put in by all the participants is to be highly commended. All of this was for raising vital funds for 3 suicide prevention and mental awareness charities –
Pieta House (http://www.pieta.ie/), Console (http://www.console.ie/) and Wexford Marine Watch (http://www.wexfordmarinewatch.com/). You can still donate to these great causes by either our online charity donation page – http://www.mycharity.ie/event/wexfordminors/.
You can also donate to any of the players or mentors, or should you wish to donate by other means, please email [email protected].
The players and management would like to thank the following sponsors who made contributions to the fund which helps us greatly:
Leisure Max – http://www.leisuremax.ie/ A great family entertainment centre with bowling, adventure playground , 5 a side pitch, and restaurant amongst other great activities.
Club Suppliers – http://clubsuppliersireland.com/ One stop shop to get all your club gear with crests. They kindly sponsored individually initialled beany hats with the Wexford Crest for all members of the squad, which some players wore during the event, and many more wore afterwards to stay warm!
Wexford Suspension Training – https://www.facebook.com/WexfordSuspensionTraining Jason Kehoe will get you back fit again with his TRX training program. He took the squad through their paces in preparation for the event, which was essential!
Yellowbelly – http://www.yellowbelly.ie/ Wexford based illustrative work, with lots of posters and bookmarks available to buy
Dublin Branch of the Wexford Supporters Club – For all the Wexford students and people working in Dublin, here is your chance to socialise and stay informed of GAA matters back in Wexford.
Wexford County Board – for the proceeds of all sales of the Coiste Na nOg calendar produced by PJ Howlin which was donated, and to the chairman of Coiste na nOg, Bobby Goff for his contribution, and the rest of the committee for all their support in helping us make this event happen.
GAA Clubs around the county – who contributed to the event and help facilitate our players attend and represent their county
Wexford Referees – for the kind contributions that the referees made in donating to the fund.
Dunnes Stores – For 2 days Dunnes Stores invited us in to provide a bag packing service which generated a great amount of money.
Hell and Back – http://www.hellandback.ie/ who put on a great event and ensured it all ran smoothly. They were very accommodating for our needs with such a large group and a grat day was had by all despite the trying challenges!
All the local businesses who helpfully allowed us to leave our collection buckets in their premises to allow people donate their change to the fund.
And we would like to thank every person who contributed no matter how big or small, whether it was by donating money to the players, by giving a small bit of change in the collection boxes, those who helped with our bag packing event, the parents who give their time and ‘taxi service’ for the players and to the players themselves, who without them, we wouldn’t have raised half as much as we have.
Despite the cold and wet conditions, and the devilish challenges and obstacles, it was a great day out, where team work and support was the over riding theme of the day. Everyone was there to support each other, and help their team mates and other competitors. And its this message we want to carry through on the field and off it, which is the main reason we are fund raising for these 3 charities. We are all there to support each other, and these 3 charities are also there for us all when in need of more support.
So again, if you can give anything, please donate to these worthy causes.
And to show some proof of the toughness of the event, these are a selection of photos taken on the day!
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