NUIG handball team raises €1,700 for youth mental health

NUI Galway Handball club fundraising brought over €1,700 this past week for Jigsaw, the national centre for youth mental health in Ireland.

The funds were raised through 85 donations from people across Galway and throughout the country.

NUI Galway Handball fundraising lasted over the course of a week on completion of virtual related challenges. These challenges had a dual aim, to encourage people to donate to the Jigsaw charity and to get people outside and into the fresh air.

Co-captain of NUI Galway Handball club, Jack Mcneela outlined that the idea for the fundraiser came about from the fact he and friends missed the social aspect of handball.

“We were supposed to be in America last week playing our annual handball college competition, but because of COVID-19 that was shelved like everything else,” he said.

“We wanted to plan something for the week as if we were in America ourselves,” he continued. “The idea was to create a virtual challenge each day with the main aim of donating to Jigsaw after you completed the challenge.”

“The Jigsaw organisation help young people on a daily basis with their mental health so we were happy to support them,” he said.

The challenges were not limited to those from NUI Galway Handball Club either.

“The challenges were open to anyone who wanted to get involved and a lot of the people who did were not even members of a club,” he said.

The challenges varied everyday but included a steps challenge, a kill shot challenge (knocking over an object from distance with a handball), and a reaction challenge.

Seoirse Hackett, fundraising officer for Jigsaw was extremely grateful for the help and donations received.

“I want to give a huge thank you to NUI Galway Handball club for supporting Jigsaw this past week. We are absolutely delighted at the amazing fundraising they did. Raising over €1,700 is an amazing amount and they should all be really proud of their efforts,” she said.

Jack and NUI Galway Handball Club were also delighted to receive the thanks and acknowledgement from the Jigsaw charity.

“It was nice to get a thank you but we enjoyed the challenges as much as anyone and were just happy to help,” he said.

To get more information about Jigsaw’s action in Ireland, visit their website.

Keep informed about the NUIG handball team on their Instagram.

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