To mark the day that should have seen the running of the 64th Erne Head of the River from Enniskillen Royal Boat Club last Saturday the rowers from the Club handed over 2 cheques to Action Mental Health and RNLI, each for £3,035 to help them with their invaluable work. The money had been raised during the Boat Club’s ongoing Lockdown Virtual Malin to Mizen Head Challenge.

Derek Holland, Head of Rowing at ERBC thanked everyone who has supported the Boat Club’s fundraising event which started at the beginning in January to keep the rowers motivated while they have been training at home. “This has been a very challenging time for all our rowers, they are really missing training on the water with their crew mates since before Christmas. This Challenge has given them a focus with many of them completing the Challenge in the first 5 weeks. It is important for them to stay motivated so that when we return to training at the Boathouse we can just continue building on what they have been doing at home. It has been a great opportunity for us to give something back to our local community to thank them for all the support that they have given us over many years. Saturday was a difficult day for us as Erne Head day is always such a special day for ERBC and to see it cancelled 2 years in a row has been very tough. We decided to present the first of our cheques from the Challenge to turn our disappointment into something positive on the day. Many thanks to everyone who has donated money to our Justgiving page in support of our rowers, coaches and parents who have been taking part in the Challenge which will continue until Easter Sunday when hopefully more than 100 people will have reached a Virtual Mizen Head’

If you would like to make a donation you can do it using this link

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jennifer-conway-11?

Tim Murphy and Shannon Clawson both covered more than one million metres during their challenge with Tim covered the distance from Malin Head to Mizen and back again.

Stephen Scott from RNLI accepted the cheque from Shannon Clawson and Rosie Maguire from Action Mental Health accepted their cheque from rower Tim Murphy. Action Mental Health’s money will be spent at New Horizons, Drumcoo on their Boost programme with focuses on young people. Action Mental Health have been working with the rowers and parents over the last couple of weeks hosting online workshops for them