Juvenile Badminton gets CU support

It is a real indicator of success when anything, either a consumer item or an organisation, has a waiting list.

And that's the case with Kilcullen Juvenile Badminton Club, now going from strength to strength and with a couple of league titles under its belt. There are some 48 youngsters now involved, and as well as providing a good sports outlet it means that the future of the adult club looks very sound indeed for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, a number of the Juveniles who began with the club half a dozen years ago have already moved on to the adult level.

It is the kind of community activity that Kilcullen Credit Union likes to support, and last week the CU's Pat Stafford officially handed over a full set of club T-shirts to the Juvenile Club.



"We have a set of values that are based around community and social responsibility and we have a fund from which we support opportunities like this," says Pat, who is currently chairman of Kilcullen Credit Union. "Where we have a group of young people active like this every weekend is exactly the kind of thing we like to donate to."

It is also a way of creating awareness about the Credit Union, although thh sponsor's name actually doesn't appear on the shirts in this instance. "We found that the cost of having our own logo on the shirts would actually pay for quite a few extra ones, so we decided to give the club the better value by doing it this way," Pat Stafford says.

The Juveniles compete in both the Dublin and Kildare leagues, winning the former twice in the last few years as well as having good success in the Kildare competition.

While the bulk of the members are from the Kilcullen area, there are also youngesters from a wider hinterland that stretches to Naas and Hollywood, for example.

A Summer Club held over the last two years is substantially responsible for the major increase in membership over the last while. It seems that those new to the sport get a taste for it and join the main club.

Saturday mornings are the general Juvenile Club times, and there are also matches on Friday nights and Saturdays. On average there are over 65 league matches in a year.