Saints & Slimmers

All Saints GAC, Ballymena were recently recognized in the Irish News Club & Volunteer Awards winning the Health Initiative category. This was the first year that this new category was introduced to the awards and is fitting recognition of the work that many GAA clubs the length and breadth of the country do to promote overall health and well-being both of their members and their wider community. All Saints first embarked on their “Saints & Slimmers” programme in January 2016 before building on its success into their 2017 project. 

“Saints & Slimmers 2017”. 

The story - 42 days, 115 people, 78 stone lost, great friends made, putting club and well-being at the centre of our community! 

Building on the success of last year’s programme we started our 6 week Health & Well-Being journey in Jan 2017. Drawing participants from across the ages (18-75yrs), within the club and wider non-GAA community and across the religious divide we involved all participants in a series of health, well-being and social activities. Whether your favourite was early morning spin, Couch-5k running, It’s a Knockout, family treasure hunt or Gladiator Gym sessions arguably the highlight of the programme was the “Dance-Off” finale. Having concentrated on Irish Dance previously we introduced Jive, Line and Modern to the programme with great success evidenced when over 400 supporters packed a local hotel to witness each of the 10 teams compete for the overall “Slimmers 2017” trophy. Another addition this year was the introduction of “Mindfulness” sessions to support good mental health as we have suffered 1st hand from the despair poor mental health can cause. 6 words from a grateful participant sum up this year’s programme perfectly - “Saints & Slimmers changed my life!