On Friday the 20th of January, Coláiste Cholmcille welcomed our LIDL Athlete Mentor Eilish Ward to introduce our girls to the Lidl Schools Programme 2023. The Lidl #SeriousSupport is a new school’s programme funded by Lidl and delivered in partnership with the LGFA and The Youth Sport Trust. It is a fantastic initiative to reduce the drop-off rate in sport and specifically Ladies Gaelic Football amongst girls. We had 80 girls from 1st year to 6th year participate in the different parts of the programme.
 
Eilish began the morning with an insight into her sporting career and how it had a huge influence on her life since an early age. The girls loved how honest and inspirational she was about her relationship with sport through the good and the bad days but no matter what, her team mates always supported her. She highlighted the fact that sport is about more than a ball of air going between two posts, it’s about the friendships and memories you make along the way.
 

A select group of Girls from the U16 team were picked to explore the values of participating in sport and the role of healthy eating and physical activity in our overall wellbeing and life chances. They completed activities based around the values of Respect, Recognition, Responsibility and Trust and how all these values help them to achieve success and the best version of themselves. Some of the artwork and communication skills were debatable but they really enjoyed the experience.
 

We finished off the day with two Gaelic sessions with 55 girls which was based on skills and quick reaction games. We all look forward to Eilish returning on the 3rd of March and completing the next phase of the programme. Thanks again to Eilish and all involved, it was a great success.