A field in Leap is covered in a sea of yellow with thousands of sunflowers set to generate funds for a local astro-turf pitch and the Cork charity Cancer Connects.
Leap in Bloom is the latest initiative from a dedicated committee who plan to sell the flowers on-site and in the church yard over the August bank holiday weekend.
Denis O’Donovan, one of the Bloom committee, said: ‘In 2023 the same committee ran Leap Dyno. We tested over 100 tractors for their horsepower, it had never been done here before.’
That event also raised funds towards the astro-turf pitch for Kilmac GAA and was followed in 2024 by Leap Revved Up – a 24-hour tractor rebuild on the side of the road.
Denis explained: ‘We raffled the tractor, people who bought tickets could visualise themselves winning it and what they would do with the tractor. It ended up going to Limerick in the end.’
Fast forward to 2025 and Denis said the committee were determined to ‘up the ante’ even further and come up with another novel idea.
‘We decided to grow sunflowers,’ he said. In the true spirit of ‘It takes a village’ the project has been a labour of love with the wider community throwing their full support behind it.
A half-acre field was offered up by two local farmers who went one step further and ploughed and furrowed the land. The next challenge was picking stones but a message on WhatsApp saw a huge crowd of volunteers answer the call.
‘It really was a full community effort,’ said Denis. ‘Victor Jennings, who has a seeder, set the seeds and Agway Milling supplied a specialised bag of seeds.
‘The weather in May was very dry and the crows started taking over because the seeds weren’t growing quickly enough. But Leap being the home of the Scarecrow Festival we got five or six scarecrows up there and that did the trick.’
The village is now fully decked out and ready for the Bloom weekend thanks to the work of a new organisation – Leap Flowery Fun Group – who have planted up blue barrels donated by local farmers and sponsored by Skibbereen Garden Centre and Leap Community Council.
But the list of supporters goes on. ‘May was unusually dry so we had to water the sunflowers and a local farmer gave us an irrigater,’ said Denis. ‘They are now six foot tall, spot on target.
‘It will be a wild sea of yellow, thousands of them. Our plan for the bank holiday weekend is to pick your own sunflower and donate. In the field we will have tea and coffee, live music over the weekend, with a ukulele band on Sunday.’
There will also be a station at the church where bunches of sunflowers will be on sale.
‘We have no target in mind,’ said Denis. ‘Cancer Connect are our charity partners. They transport people to and from hospital for treatment, a lot of people in the club are involved with that charity.
‘Regarding the astro-turf pitch we’re hoping this year’s fundraiser will see us out and we will be able to install it in the very near future.’
