Seven local sports clubs receive a share of £5k thanks to Boost Sport
Malone Rugby Football Club Women’s Team has scored £2000 for their club after being announced as the overall winner of the nationwide Boost Sport Grant initiative where six county winners were also chosen to receive £500 to help achieve their goals.
Provincial winners were made up of Speed Development Project Track Club from County Londonderry, St Mary’s GAC Club Aghagallon from County Antrim, Lurgan Town FC from County Armagh, East Belfast GAA from County Down, Artigarvan FC from County Tyrone and Enniskillen Royal Boat Club from County Fermanagh.
Covid-19 Burden
Covid-19 restrictions have put a huge burden onto sports clubs this year with lack of income being gained to support and run much loved community-based grass-roots clubs so Boost Drinks made sure to help by providing an essential boost in funds to seven clubs.
Over 50 applications were received from across NI before a judging panel (including Belfast Telegraph Group Sports Editor Jim Gracey) selected a well-deserving overall winner and six county winners.
Overall winner
The overall winner was chosen due to their vision of providing more opportunities for people of all abilities, from different backgrounds and communities. Malone RFC is the first club in Ulster to provide a team for participants with mixed abilities which caught the judges attention.
Peita McAlister from Malone RFC Women’s Team describes her delight at winning £2000 from the Boost Sport Grant: “This comes at such a difficult year when all fundraising avenues had been closed.
“The Boost Sport Grant provides an amazing opportunity for the club to continue to lead the way in providing mixed ability rugby sessions and allow us to provide more coaching provision and therefore the continued increased participation for girls in our community. We strive to provide the best facilities, coaching and largest girl’s rugby section in Ulster. This will be incredibly helpful in assisting us to reach our goals”.
Sporting talent
Boost Marketing Director, Adrian Hipkiss said: “This initiative was very important to us as we appreciate times have been difficult for many in NI and sports have taken a big hit with little support.
“All the judges were so impressed by the applicants. It is very clear that Northern Ireland has sporting talent in abundance – which we want to help nurture.
“On behalf of Boost we want to wish all the Boost Sport Grant recipients congratulations and good luck for the future,” continued Adrian.
Boost Drinks was established in 2001, launching in Northern Ireland in 2003 and now owns the province’s best-selling soft drink as well as the fastest selling sports drink in Northern Ireland*. Boost is available in various pack formats across seven core Energy flavours, Sport, Protein and Iced Coffee.
* Source: IRI Marketplace Data Symbols and Independents 52 weeks unit sales to 4th October 2020
