Shamrock Club raise money for NHIP with three-day snooker tournament

By Mike Riley

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Shamrock Club, a seniors club operating out of the Dungannon Recreation Centre in L'Amable, held a three-day snooker tournament over the May 6 weekend to raise money for the North Hastings Inspiration Place. In addition to the tournament, there was a social, roast beef dinner and silent auction on the Saturday night, with over 50 people in attendance. Overall, they raised $1,520 towards the new build. The Shamrock Club's Michael Brooks and Kim McMunn, the CEO and head librarian with the North Hastings Library, comment on this fundraiser.

The Shamrock Club is a seniors club operated out of the Dungannon Recreation Centre in L'Amable, and according to Brooks, their mandate is to support and enhance the lives of seniors living in the Bancroft area.

“We do this by offering activities like playing snooker, bridge, euchre, line dancing, exercise, Tai-chi, and Yoga. It's an extremely active club with over 180 members. In addition, the Shamrock Club fundraises for projects in town which will appeal not only to the general community but specifically to the seniors' community,” he says.

To this end, the club had a three-day snooker tournament on May 5, 6 and 7, where all proceeds raised went to the construction of the NHIP. The Shamrock Club snooker players play every Monday and Wednesday morning at the Dungannon Recreation Centre. They also had a social hour and dinner the evening of May 6 which also had a silent auction with items donated from the community.

 McMunn tells Bancroft This Week that she knows she lives in an amazing community when one organization randomly offers to host a fundraising event on behalf of another.

“The North Hastings Inspiration Place capital campaign team will the attending the fundraising dinner on Saturday evening. With all the work involved in hosting a fundraiser, I hope the community turns out to support the Shamrock Club, by participating in the snooker tournament and enjoy what promises to be a great meal. Hope to see you there!” she says.

McMunn told Bancroft This Week on May 8 that they had the best evening at the May 6 dinner, and that she met some new people and visited with friends she hadn't seen in quite a while.

“After [three] days of snooker, the players were full of good-natured rivalry. Lots of laughs and wit between the players. Social hour carried right on into supper and often Michael Brooks had to shush people so that he could call numbers for the numerous door prizes.

McMunn says that there were generous gifts for the door prizes and many local businesses and services were featured. She said that tickets to the Science Centre and to a local theatre production were won. The silent auction held unique items like jewelry, hand-painted cups, antiques and a men's hair cut which sold for $60, according to McMunn.

“The dinner I believe was catered by Crystal Landis [which was subsequently confirmed to Bancroft This Week by Michael Brooks]. The roast beef was so tender you could cut it with a fork and the cheesecake for dessert was worth the price of admission on its own! The biggest joke of the evening was that it is now an international event, with one of the players residing in the U.S. It seemed to be a weekend that no matter the skill level, everyone had a good time and although it still had one more day to go when I left, everyone was talking about next year's event,” she says.

Brooks told Bancroft This Week on May 8 that it was a tremendously successful event overall and one that will be repeated for many years based upon the community response.

“The social hour was well attended and everyone enjoyed the fantastic roast beef dinner presented by Hidden Valley Catering. Musical entertainment was provided by Lloyd Tills through the social and dessert. Overall, the event raised $1,520 towards the construction of the North Hastings Inspiration Place, well over our goal for the weekend. We would like to extend thanks to community businesses including Bancroft Foodland, North Hastings Family Pharmacy, M&M Esso, Bancroft Home Hardware, Bancroft V&S Stedmans, and realtor Cheryl Easton for their kind contributions,” he says. “The winners for the three-day open Snooker Tournament were Lawrence Tomasini (first place), Darren McCaskie (second place) and Michael Dearborn (third place).”