By Kathleen Mullane

‘Please Help Us’

Firstly can I take this opportunity to wish each and every reader of the Athea Parish Newsletter a very Happy and Holy Easter. Easter is a lovely time of the year especially if we get the nice weather that’s being forecast. The winter-frost and icy roads all gone – everything coming to life, the flowers blooming, lawns being cut – turf machines buzzing in the bogs, long bright evenings, the sound of children out playing football, and on recent evenings it’s great to see groups of young children with their bikes and helmets on cycling around the ring and safely I may add! It’s great that the doom and gloom is put partly on the back of people’s minds for a while anyway – the long dark and dreary winter days don’t help coping with the recession!

Well following last week’s meeting of the Colbert Hall Fund-Raising Committee, it was decided to start off the fund-raising with a ‘SCRAP FUND-RAISER’. The debt is now down to €57,000 and the interest alone on the loan is €5,000 a year so we are trying to reduce the outstanding balance as quickly as possible. It’s your hall – the people of Athea, so it’s up to everyone to help out. We are appealing to everyone, not only in Athea Parish, but further afield also, to all those who use the Hall for different sporting activities etc to come on board and help – ask your friends and neighbours if they would go through their houses, sheds, garages, fields etc . if you have any bits of metal , whether it be old radiators, cars, children’s swings, old bikes, pots, pans indeed anything metal, iron, aluminium, old broken tools etc we could do with them for our fund-raising campaign. Your scrap can be collected or indeed you can drop it off at our collection point. If you would like to help out ring the following – Caroline O’ Connell on 087-6643307, Mike Flavin on – 087-1310023 or Kathleen Mullane on 087- 1233361.

Hopefully on this Tuesday night that the Athea National School Choir, who are travelling to Adare under the guidance of Catherine McAuliffe and Margaret Carroll to take part in the Community Games Competition, will do very well and all going well they will sing their hearts out!

Thought for this Easter –

‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need – but not every man’s greed’!