Friday, December 31, 2010

ESB donates one million euro to Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) received a welcome boost for its Annual Appeal with an €1 million donation from ESB just before Christmas.

“It will help make a real and valuable difference to families and individuals who are struggling in these tough times. It will be used to provide much needed basics for families to help them get through Christmas and the remaining winter months,” said Mairead Bushnell, SVP National President. 

“ESB has a long history of working with SVP, with particular focus on helping and advising consumers on staying well and warm over the winter months.”

She said that the generous contribution reflects the great response from the public to the 2010 Annual Appeal.  

Calls for assistance to the SVP this year have increased nationally by 35% and in some areas, calls to regional offices are up 50%.  In this context, she encouraged people to continue to make much-needed donations as there are so many people in need throughout the country.

Speaking about ESB’s donation, Liam Molloy, General Manager, ESB Electric Ireland said, “In view of the particularly challenging times that families and individuals are dealing with at the moment, ESB is making an immediate contribution of €1 million to St. Vincent de Paul’s Annual Appeal to help assist those in need.  The current cold weather is placing extra stress on families, especially so close to Christmas, so we hope our contribution will provide some 
further relief to those most in need.”

The SVP Annual Appeal had another unusual donation just before Christmas when toys and children’s presents arrived in Dublin from students at the Saarland University in Germany.  

Over 130 shoeboxes of toys and gifts were delivered to the SVP National Office in Dublin from the English Department at the German University. 

The students and their Professor, Bert Hornback, were studying the situation in Ireland and decided to make a contribution to an Irish charity.  

The delivery and collection was sponsored by the Irish-German Fellowship, Saarland.

The New Year is getting off to a good start with Jam Café Bakery Deli launching their inaugural 2011 charity calendar, with all proceeds from sales going to SVP.  

The chain has branches in Kenmare, Killarney, Tralee and Cork

“I hope it will be the first of an annual fund raising project and that it will win the support of our customers and friends and hopefully deliver a nice fat cheque to St Vincent de Paul"  said James Mulchrone of Jam.  

"We wanted to do something that would have immediate and local impact. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is always a very worthy charity and never more so than at this challenging time for everyone in our community.”

Brendan Dempsey, Cork Regional President, SVP, welcomed the initiative, in times when people are feeling the pinch and the stress rates seem much higher.  

“The general public and companies have been tremendous, the good will is so obvious that we can’t remember a time when we received so many calls offering help in one form or another, its appreciated and every little helps,” he said.

The Jam Charity Calendars is available from any Jam Café, with a suggested donation of €4.50.

SIC: CIN/IE