The Wicklow Hospice Foundation is currently participating in the Tesco Community Fund in all six Tesco stores across County Wicklow. The Foundation is asking Tesco customers across Wicklow to use their blue tokens to help them in the push to raise a further €1million to commence the building of the 15-bed hospice.
To date, the Foundation has raised over €3.5 million since it was set up in 2009. Its aim is the establishment of a hospice in Magheramore for the people of the county so that they have the option of spending their last days in a peaceful environment. But building a hospice is a costly business and the foundation need to raise €4.5million before building can commence.
“People have been really generous,” says Evanne Cahill, Chairperson of Fundraising for the Wicklow Hospice Foundation. “Every week, there are different fundraising events taking place and our volunteers have been tremendous.”
Although its volunteers have put their hearts and souls into the project, the not-for-profit foundation still needs to raise another €1 million before it can commence building the facility.
Evanne points out that after eight years of fundraising, the people of Wicklow still have nothing to see for their efforts. Evanne says, “It is difficult to continue asking people to donate when building work hasn’t even begun on the site. The problem for the foundation is that building can’t start until enough money is raised to guarantee that it can be completed.”
“We are currently ramping up our fundraising programme to raise this further €1 million as soon as possible. It’s a lot but we have raised €3.5 million to date and it is not insurmountable. The Tesco Community Fund is helping us increase public awareness and is enabling us to continue driving momentum in our fundraising efforts.”
The Tesco Community Fund is also helping thousands of local causes right across Ireland, donating over €2.1 million to over 7,500 local causes since 2014. This week our stores will present 450 local good causes with €120,000 worth of donations from the Community Fund, enabling them to make a big difference in communities’ right across Ireland.
Area Community Champion for Tesco stores across Wicklow, Aoife Parle said: “We are delighted to be able to support amazing local initiatives such as the Wicklow Hospice Foundation through the Tesco Community Fund. The fund is open to a wide variety of good causes or groups so if you think you know a local organisation that could benefit from some extra funding, please nominate them in store or online today. And don’t forget to vote for your preferred cause each time you shop using your blue token, because it really does make a difference.”
Tesco customers can simply fill out a nomination form in store and every 8 weeks, three local causes will be selected for the Tesco Community Fund. Customers can also nominate a cause online via: www.tesco.ie/communityfund. And at the end of each phase, blue token votes are counted and up to €1,000 is shared proportionally between the three local causes. Further information and criteria for entry is available on www.tesco.ie/communityfund.
