a day ago
West Cork farmers fundraise by bringing Leap into bloom
Farmers in west Co. Cork have been raising money for Cancer Connect and Kilmacabea GAA club through growing sunflowers for a fundraiser event titled 'Leap in Bloom'.
Denis O'Donovan, a dairy farmer from west Co. Cork began participating in fundraising for Kilmacabea GAA club three years ago when the Leap and Glandore-based club was seeking financial aid for a new astroturf pitch.
The first fundraiser for the club titled 'Leap Dyno Day' measured the horsepower of local farmers' tractors, testing over 100 tractors on the day.
The second fundraiser involved a 24hr tractor rebuild of an old unused David Brown tractor.
This year the club wanted to do something different, so they decided to grow sunflowers to raise money for the local GAA club as well as Cancer Connect, a Co. Cork-based charity.
O'Donovan, along with farmers Timmy McCarthy, Jerry and Diarmuid O'Donovan, and James and Diarmuid French grew small pockets of sunflowers on their land.
Over the August bank holiday weekend, members from Kilmacabea GAA club held a "bucket collection" where by volunteers accepted donations from road users travelling through Leap village over the three days.
Anyone who gave money then received a bouquet of sunflowers.
O'Donovan spoke to Agriland to highlight the success of the event.
He said: "We brought a full community with us when we ploughed the field first, we had help from young and old with u12's right up to the senior members, picking stones and helping with fencing.
Karl McCarthy and Rita Ryan. Source: Denis O'Donovan
"We also approached the Leap Fun Flowery Club who grew more flowers for us in blue barrels. The dairy farmers had plenty of blue barrels lying around so we just cut them in half and painted them.
"One issue we had was the dry weather in May and the sunflowers were slow to grow. So, of course the crows were having a field day because they weren't growing quick enough.
"So we got onto the Leap Scarecrow Festival Committee and they gave us four or five scarecrows to put in the sunflower fields, and that got rid of the crows."
O'Donovan explained that there is still 0.4ac left of sunflowers, which will be delivered to local hospitals, nursing homes, churches, hotels, and whoever wants to take them.
The remaining sunflower field, located just outside Leap village, is still open to the public to pick their own flowers, with an honesty box left there for donations.
