Mayor Higgins Pays tribute to Sean Kelly Tour Volunteers

At a function held in Crotty’s Bar, Lemybrien on Thursday 27th November last the 236 volunteers, sponsors and supporters of this year’s Sean Kelly  Tour of Waterford were publicly thanked by the Mayor of County Waterford, Cllr. Tom Higgins.

24th August 2008 saw the Sean Kelly Tour go from strength to strength with over 1800 cyclists taking to the roads of Co. Waterford right across the 3 distances of 50k, 100k and 160k. Without the help of so many willing volunteers the tour would still only be a pipedream.

Speaking at the event Mayor Higgins paid tribute to all of the volunteers involved saying that ‘…it was great to see people from every section of the community, who may never have met one another in their normal daily lives come together as a team to ‘get the show on the road’….Mayor Higgins also recognised the challenges presented to the organisers due to the massive increase in participants but said that they met these challenges and were equal to them.

Waterford County Manager Mr. Ray O’Dwyer expressed his heartfelt thanks to all involved and said that ‘with the efforts of all here tonight, we are beginning to make a difference’. The next phase in the Sean Kelly Tour concept will be the permanent sign posting of 5 routes around the county which will really begin to mark Co. Waterford out as a premier cycling destination.

Co-ordinator of Waterford Sports Partnership, Ms. Rosarie Kealy was fulsome in her praise of the efforts of all of this year’s supporters of the tour and was especially delighted that all the hard work involved saw a doubling of the numbers participating in the tour with over 500 of those taking part coming from Waterford.

Sean Kelly himself along with Chairman of the Sean Kelly Tour Committee, Jim O’Keeffe and John Fitzgerald of the NCBI all praised the organisers and those who helped out on the weekend and all three are looking forward to bigger and better in 2009!

Another great aspect of the tour is the fact that this year riders raised €31,500.00 for the nominated charity, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. When we add this to the last year’s total of €18,000, in two short years participants of the tour have raised €49,500.00.

Director of Services for Community and Enterprise, Mr. Denis McCarthy again acknowledged the work of all involved in the organisation of this years tour and said that the committee are in the planning stages of the 2009 event and an announcement will shortly be made regarding the date for next year’s tour.

For more information on the Sean Kelly tour visit www.theseankellytour.com