Join Laz and Ronan for charity walks to Croghan Hill
Offaly football legend Laz Molloy and Operation Transformation star and Africa fundraiser Ronan Scully, along with family and friends, are undertaking the Canal Way Walk from Tullamore to Croghan Hill on St Patrick's Day to raise funds for Self Help Africa.
The duo are also looking for people to participate in a sponsored St Patrick's Day walk from Edenderry to Croghan, where participants from both walks will meet for a mass on the hill at noon.
The walks will begin at 7.30am in the morning at the Fiona Pender memorial in Tullamore and at Edenderry parish church. As participants take a voyage along the canal there will be water/snack stops with musical performances along the way.
This walk will incorporate a spiritual journey for many as its in conjunction with the Camino way (The way of Saint James), our Canal Way walk is the way of St. Patrick.
Organisers plan to be back in Croghan Hill for 11am, where walkers will enjoy a complimentary mid morning BBQ and refreshments. Then if any of the walkers wish to, a group will climb Croghan Hill in time for Mass on the hill at noon.
If any company or business or individual wants to offer sponsorship the walk organisers are looking for people or companies to sponsor one of the kilometres of the walk and we will dedicate that stretch to the sponsor. The event will maintain a pace which is suitable to people of all levels of fitness. Also if anyone would like to sponsor a kilometre of the walk will be more than welcome.
With his role as a business developer for Gorta Self Help Africa, Ronan Scully understands better than most the challenges faced by families all around Africa: “Since I started working with Gorta Self Help Africa the entire focus has been on food – and particularly how it can be grown in difficult conditions and tough climates in the developing world. I may have had my own struggles with food in the past, but the weight loss challenges that I faced on Operation Transformation are absolutely nothing to the ordeal that millions of Africans face in putting enough food on the table and providing for their families, simply to survive.”
For Ronan, the plight of the people of Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, West and East Africa and Ethiopia is particularly troubling. An adoptive father of two little girls from Ethiopia, he says that it has been particularly tough to watch the pictures of the drought and effects of climate change on the news bulletins, or explain to eight year-old Sophie and an twelve-year-old Mia what is happening in the country of their birth.
“It’s hard to explain to your children that there are people dying of hunger in the world, and particularly so when we know that this is not a disease they are suffering, but a situation that can be cured very easily.”
To find out more or to get a sponsorship card for the Canal Way charity walk contact Laz Molloy on 0866778807 or Aislinn Molloy 0870688530 or Ricey Scully 086 8153047 to receive your sponsorship card.
Participants who raise over €100 will be rewarded with a specially designed t-shirt. You can also call Ronan 087 6189094, or the www.selfhelpafrica.org website.