Donations from New Zealand for Strabane rugby club fundraiser

THERE have been donations by people living as far away as New Zealand, as Strabane Rugby Club’s GoFundMe campaign to pay for a new home raises over £125k in two weeks.

The campaign was set up to enable the Strabane sports club to establish a new base at the former Strabane Academy site on the Liskey Road.

The site has been derelict since 2020 and is currently owned by the Education Authority (EA). It is expected to reach over £2million if sold on the open market. The club believes it needed £900,000 to buy the site.

The site is also the former home of celebrated hymn-writer Cecil Francis Alexander who wrote ‘All Thing Bright and Beautiful’ and ‘Once in Royal Davids City’.

In just over two weeks since the campaign was launched at the club’s centenary celebration event in the SIlverbirch Hotel in Omagh the club has raised a fantastic £126,139, at the time of writing.

Strabane Rugby Club say they are working hard behind the scenes and are in constant contact with the local council and EA to enable a purchase of the site. The club is also working with EA to see if they can bring down the asking price for the land from the initial £2m they were quoted.

Vice chairman of Strabane Rugby Club Bob Dillon said that the entire community is behind the campaign and that the site, if bought, wouldn’t just be for the rugby club but would be a space for the entire Strabane community.

Mr Dillon said, “The campaign has been going fantastically well and people have been so generous. When we launched the campaign we did not think that we would be so far ahead of where we are now. Money is coming in from all over the world we have had donations from as far as New Zealand.

“We will endeavour to ensure that this momentum for the fundraising stays. Our goal is to raise over £900k and we have been working with local politicians and the EA to ensure we can buy the site at a reasonable price.”

Mr Dillon added, “Strabane Rugby Club would like to thank everyone who has donated so far. The generosity and support we have received has been amazing.”