Clonard parish looks for fundraising ideas

The Friends of St Finian's in Clonard have just ended a successful year of fundraising are will be meeting in the new year to look at new money-making ideas for the parish for 2010. The main project is the renovation of the parish church. In September, the Friends ran a golf classic in County Meath Golf Club, Trim. The weather kept up and the sun shone all day in one of those rare fine days of this past summer. The winning team went home with beautiful cut glass vases and €13,000 was raised. Later in the month, the friends organised a tractor run. This was a complete success, bringing the community out for the first ever tractor run in Clonard as some 91 tractors took to the road. It all started when Paddy Conlon, a Clonard parishioner, donated a Fordson to the parish for a raffle. From that came the idea to have the first ever tractor run. Ted Hinds from Trim won the prize tractor. The amount raised from this event was €23,000. A lot of hard work was put in by a lot of people too numerous to mention but, without everyone's help, neither event would have been the success they were, raising €36,000 in total. In January 2010, the Friends of St Finian will be meeting again to see if they can come up with any new ideas for fundraising. Anyone who wants to attend this meeting or any of the Friends of St Finian meetings are more than welcome. Details of the next meeting will be in the parish bulletin in the New Year.