Colm Walsh – 2020 Volunteer of the Year for Westmeath (10th Jan)
Worthy recognition for Colm Walsh
Congratulations to Colm Walsh on receiving the 2020 Volunteer of the Year for Westmeath. The Federation of Irish Sport is the representative organisation for the National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and Local Sports Partnerships (LSPs) in Ireland. Their membership consists of over 110 NGBs and LSPs from every corner of the country. They hold the Volunteers in Sport Awards annually, which were created to recognise the contributions, commitment and dedication of the 450,000 volunteers who give their time to Irish sport every year.
Over the past Covid-ridden year, Colm has kept the adult members of the club motivated through restrictions and lock-downs, producing training plans that could be done on their own, organised innovative virtual events and competitive training sessions like the recent Mullingar Ekiden, managed the backroom online solutions to register for and attend training when we were allowed to train again at the club, coached at the training sessions for the club’s youngest members on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but still kept training and running himself, carrying out the duties of Club Secretary during a very difficult period, and all the other unseen things done in the background to keep a big club like Mullingar Harriers ticking over, all as a parent of a young family and while holding down a full time job too. Such energy and dedication is commendable and Mullingar Harriers is very fortunate to have someone like Colm in its ranks!
Impressed by this dedication, Bashir Hussain, the Athletics Ireland Regional Development Officer for the Midlands, nominated Colm for the award and a panel of judges have awarded him the 2020 Volunteer of the Year for Westmeath. Colm admits to be being totally taken aback by the nomination, let alone the award, because he modestly thinks there are more deserving volunteers at the Harriers, let alone other sports clubs in Westmeath, but he considers the award is worthy recognition of Mullingar Harriers as a club and the dedication of all its coaches and committee members. The award ceremony has moved online this year and will be streamed on Tuesday night 12th January at 7pm at https://vimeo.com/event/589341. Congratulations to Colm from everyone at the club.
