Go Girls, Go Girls, Go...

If you are a woman and live anywhere in County Cavan and feel you need a break away from daily routine, kids, men, pets, TV soaps etc and would like a cuppa, a chat, to meet new friends, have fun and learn new skills, well Bridge Street Resource Centre at 8pm on a Monday night is the place for you!!! We welcome everyone from all walks of life - only stipulation is that you need to be of the fairer sex! Who are we? We are a group of women who meet every Monday night. Our main objectives are to have fun, make friends and learn new skills. We do this via a host of various activities. Some of the activities we have done to date are flower-arranging, first-aid course, manicure lessons, watched “His and Hers” film. Some nights we just meet to have a good ole girls natter! How long have we been going? We have only been in existence since May this year and so are quite a new club. How did we come together? We originally did a six-week cooking course which Nora Kennedy from the Family Outreach Service ran. We were all very disappointed when the course ended as we had all come to look forward to our Monday night slot away from the house (and housework!) where we could relax and chat with new people as well as learn new skills. As a result, we decided to continue to meet every Monday night as a group and hence our club was born!! Nora got us in touch with Una Traynor from Breffni Integrated who met with us and went through the basics of setting up a committee as well as discussing sources of funding. We originally were called the Bridge Street Women’s Group but decided recently to change the name as it gave connotations of a bridge club! Our new name is Cavan Colleens Club. The photos show the launch do for our new name which was held on Nov 1 2010. We also took this opportunity to thank some of the people who helped us get started such as Nora Kennedy, Una Traynor, Conor Craven, Gemma Brady etc. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to some local businesses in Cavan who helped contribute to the night.Tesco Ireland - who kindly sponsored some prizes for our raffle on the night; Blacks Printers especially - who did a wonderful banner for us which appears in the photo; Heatons - balloons. How we fund ourselves? Everyone pays €4 every week. We have also been given some funding from Breffni Integrated and RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development, part of Cavan County Council). What facilities are available to us? We rent a room from Cavan County Council which is located on the first floor of Bridge Street Resource Centre in Cavan town. Here we have a large fully equipped kitchen, computers and a DVD/TV at our disposal. What are our future plans? Activities that we have lined up are Colour Me Beautiful sessions whereby an image consultant gives advice on the best colour/shape of clothes to wear, make-up, hair-styles etc, tile mosaic lessons, bowling, table quizzes, aqua aerobics, exercise DVDs, playing cards and going to the cinema/theatre to name but a few. We also plan to ask people in to give us talks on various topics such as budgeting advice from M.A.B.S., women’s health issues from a Public Health Nurse, setting up your own business from Cavan Enterprise etc. Additionally, we hope to do the five-week Engaging Women Project which is run by the Peace III team, Community & Enterprise Department in Cavan County Council which gives advice and supports the development of new groups, assists groups network with women locally as well as develop their capacity as community organisations. Of course we will have a Christmas night-out of which ideas are currently being tossed around for. Who is the committee? They are: Chairperson, Róisín Nic Dhonnachadha; secretary, Rosie Shiels; and treasurer, Anne Carroll. As we are a fledgling club and are actively trying to increase the number of members, all committee members participate in promoting the club and hence do a public relations role. What are our contact details? If you would like to hear more about our club or would like to call before you intend to come along, please call 086- 2329670 or email us at cavancoclb@gmail.com.