It has been a fantastic year - we were released from the confines of Covid, yes some of us still were sick but the lockdowns ended and we got back to Tuesday's weekly bingo.  It was great to welcome everyone back again and thanks to all for the support, all who play and especially the volunteer's John, John Ger, Sharon, Catherine, Ann C, Ann S, Tom, Padraig, Amy, David, Patsy Jerry and Marian.  Thanks too to the team in the Sports hall in particular Angela and behind the scenes Padraig.  Congratulations to all who won the Spin the Wheel including our two €1000 winners Brian Mulqueen and Jessica Murphy. Congratulations to those who won from €30 - €180 on a line or house.  Thanks so much to all who played.

Limerick City and Council completed a great job on the old Cork road and turned it into a wonderful amenity.  Our Riverside Walk - is a haven, a great walking surface, a great stretch to walk a buggy or have children on their bikes and trikes.  This project was suggested to LCCC by CCDA and Croom Tidy Towns and has worked out so well for us all, it really adds to the amenities in Croom.

Croom Community Development Association - hosted a Welcome to Croom event in May and it was wonderful to meet neighbours old and new.  The event allowed those who are new to Croom to meet some of the clubs, societies and services in Croom.  We met people from Malaysia, India (which had a great representation) Zambia, the UK, and Algeria among many others, this event will happen again in the spring and it would be terrific to meet even more people.

CCDA hosted several fundraisers and get-togethers during the year and there were lots of highlights, dancing in Halpin's to Liam O'Brien, Jerry Murray the great quiz master bamboozling us all with tricky questions in Storans, elegant afternoon tea, the brainchild of Maureen Curtin.  There were many volunteers who helped with this event from baking, sandwich making and pouring tea thanks to all. May saw weekly dancing in the Sports Hall, line dancing and I know that there is an appetite to repeat and we will work towards doing this again in 2023.

 

There were events for children too, many of our families took part in the St Patrick's Day race (dogs included!), next up was Good Friday's easter egg hunt, the rain stopped the sun came out and there were hundreds of children in Croom Town Park hunting down coloured eggs, eating chocolate eggs and searching for golden eggs.  

 

The sports hall hosted lots of children on the Climbing wall this year and this is something we would like to host again. We had the children from Croom National School down in the park planting bulbs. The Halloween Spooky Walk was a bit of fun before midterm and the children also produced fantastic scary masks, luckily we got the best of the weather before the rain came. 

Croom Tidy Towns carried out lots of great work around the town, cleaning, weeding and planting. Thanks to the CE scheme and Croom Development team who assisted with some of this work including the painting of the bridge. 

Croom was featured in the Examiner newspaper in October and there was a good overview of the work being done around the town and the growth expected in the coming years in Croom.  Exciting times are ahead.

 

New to Croom was the car boot sale in September, a great day that allowed the community to take advantage of great bargains and recycle and reuse items and household goods.  Lovely to be able to enjoy a car boot indoors and have the advantage of a cup of tea and a slice of cake between purchases!!  The cup of tea and coffee was available again at the Craft Fair, what a wonderful selection of crafts and gifts, what talented crafts people there are in the locality.