There are some days when you can look at a piece of ground and realise just how far a community has come.

This week, the foundations for our new clubhouse at Callum Friel Park have been dug. After years of planning, fundraising, funding applications and an enormous amount of voluntary effort, we can finally see the next chapter beginning.

The journey really got moving around 2021, when the vision of creating a permanent home for Dunfanaghy Youths FC began to take shape. Through the incredible support of the local community, and the money raised through our 50/50, we were able to develop the site and establish our home at Callum Friel Park, with football beginning here in 2023.

Since then, the work has continued.

Sports Capital funding has been secured, planning has been progressed, and there are further projects underway, including a walking track, a new storage facility and plans for significant rainwater harvesting.

But the clubhouse is the piece that really brings the vision together.

It will give our teams a place to meet, train and gather. It will provide a valuable community resource and, most importantly, create a home that can be enjoyed by generations of Dunfanaghy Youths players and the wider community.

None of this happens by accident.

A huge thank you goes to our Development Committee, for the hours spent navigating applications, planning, funding and all the inevitable hurdles that come with a project of this scale. Their persistence has helped turn an ambition into something we can now physically see taking shape.

And then there is the 50/50.

The draw has now been running for six years and during that time has contributed in the region of €90,000 towards the development of the club. Remarkably, more than €90,000 has also been returned in prizes to people in our community.

So when you buy a 50/50 ticket, you're not simply entering a draw.

You're helping build this.

You're helping create facilities that will be here for the next generation of children who pull on the Dunfanaghy Youths jersey.

We're incredibly proud of what is happening at Callum Friel Park, and we're hugely grateful to everyone who has helped get us to this point.

Please keep supporting the 50/50. Every ticket helps us take another step towards completing our home. 💙🖤⚽