County camogie PRO Brid MacNamara has been named as the Clare winner at the 2020 Federation of Irish Sport Volunteers in Sport Awards.
Nominated by Clare camogie, Brid has been recognised as a result of her ongoing efforts in promoting the sport in the county along with a special fundraiser she helped to initiate in the year gone by.
Created to champion the contribution, commitment and dedication of the army of 450,000 volunteers across the country, the Volunteers in Sport Awards acknowledge the exploits of personnel who dedicate some 37.2 million hours of volunteering across the country’s 13,000 plus sports clubs and associations every year.
Now in her second term as public relations officer of Clare Camogie, Brid has was county secretary in 2004 and is one of the longest serving officials on the board. On a weekly basis, she compiles all match reports from U12 to Junior and submits to local media outlets to keep supporters informed on what is going on.
Brid has been spotted presenting medals to club championship winners, organising blitzes, making sandwiches for county teams, distributing tea to supporters, putting together match programmes, live tweeting from games, taking photographs, painting benches, digging flowers and reportedly assisting to lay a footpath at the county grounds.
With a little nudge from Clooney/Quin’s Mike Duggan, Brid came up with the idea of doing a walk which was the equivalent of the 430km journey from Fr McNamara Park in Ennis to Croke Park and back. Along the way, she visited each of the 26 clubs in the county and eventually ended up walking over 500km, this effort brought in over €16,000.
A native of Ruan, Brid has previously been named as PRO of the Year by the Camogie Association in 2011 and 2012.
Anne McHale, of Ballina Braves Boys BC in Mayo, received the overall Outstanding Achievement Award for the many years of tireless service she has given to the sport and the club in Co. Mayo. Olympian Pat Hooper (RIP) was also honoured with a Special Recognition award for his dedication to the sport of athletics. He was a decorated athlete before becoming a dedicated and exceptional coach. His untimely passing in 2020 was felt by the entire athletics community. Daingean GAA (Offaly) also received a Special Recognition award for their commitment to their community during COVID-19. The group went above and beyond to assist their community and came together to support the most vulnerable members through these challenging times.
