Friends of St. Ita’s June Sponsored Walk (Virtual) raises a massive €28,320.00 - "Friends of St. Ita’s are totally overwhelmed by the enormity of this outcome" said Chairman Fergus Scanlan, who noted, this far, far exceeds our greatest expectations when we decided to run this fundraiser last May.
Needless to say we are overjoyed with the result, particularly in the current very negative fundraising climate which Covid-19 has wrought on the Charity Sector and, indeed, on the whole of society!
And so words cannot describe our huge sense of gratitude to all sections of this great community for their enormous help, support and generosity in achieving this truly fantastic result. And, very happily, not just on this occasion but, as you will know from our fundraising history, such support, goodwill and generosity have been very much the hallmark of our unparalleled success which, over these last 18/19 years, has seen us raise over €4Million.
Very briefly, if I might remind readers of just how much this funding has helped improve the quality of life in all its aspects for our much loved residents and patients in St. Ita’s. It covered Funding towards :-
I) The fabulous 8 bedded Palliative-Care Unit(costing €2.5M we contributed €1.66M – opened 2009);
2) The much talked-about and very beautiful 22 bedded Rehab Unit (costing almost €3M – we contributed €1.32M – opened in 2015); 3)Provision of hospital patient transport – 3 specially adapted patient minibuses costing €170,000
More recently over the last 18 months the Friends have contributed over €157,000 towards various initiatives and essential improvements i.e. the purchase of very high-tech Rehab Equipment; installation of Wifi for the residents as well as electronic entertainment; refurbishment of some of the hospital units including the purchase of hospital furniture etc. etc. details of which we would have included in previous Press Releases in the Weekly Observer. It goes without saying, the Friends are extremely proud of our record in this regard and we are absolutely thrilled to have played such a central role and be an integral part of this “good news story” which at the end of the day is all about the quality of life, care and wellbeing of our greatly cherished residents and patients and for the brilliant staff who look after them so well and so lovingly.
This, as we have said so many times before, is and always has been the whole focus of our fundraising and the primary objective of our association with this great hospital. But I must hasten to add our enormous success in achieving that objective to-date is very much attributable to the outstanding support and generosity of all sections of this great community of West Limerick and beyond and as already alluded to at the outset. And so once again the Friends would like to express our very sincere thanks and appreciation to all of our wonderful supporters for your caring concern, goodwill and generosity which has allowed us help implement all those life changing improvements as already outlined. All geared towards providing a standard of care and comfort appropriate to the needs of our residents and patients and all happening in a very loving, caring and homely environment created and managed by the truly wonderful staff who run St. Ita’s.
We are delighted to say the hospital continues to remain Covid-free with family visits continuing as has been for the last while. Weekly live music sessions also in operation as well as in-house bingo. This is all fantastic for the residents and patients to uplift their spirits and for their mental wellbeing. So again we owe a huge ‘thank you’ to the staff for their great efforts in this regard! Finally, our very grateful thanks once again to our wonderful supporters for this fantastic result and with a special word of thanks to our many supporters around the community who took sponsorship cards and between them raised a spectacular €9,736.00 - to all of whom we are eternally grateful. And from the Business and Corporate Sector we received a whopping €13,828.00 in sponsorship for the event and to whom we are likewise extremely thankful.
Also a special word of thanks to Margaret Culhane our Secretary who raised the huge sum of €2,356.00 which was an outstanding achievement given the times we are in ! As always we send our very good wishes to all the residents and patients and to wonderful Staff. We thrilled to know that life for the residents as they once knew is gradually returning again – thank God.
As ever our ever-grateful thanks to our wonderful friends at the Weekly Observer for their great help and support down through these last 18/19 years in keeping a very favorable spotlight on our fundraising activities – it is truly appreciated!
Finally, note you can follows us on our Website & Facebook Page.
Once again very many thanks to everyone and may the good Lord bless and reward one and all for all your kindness and generosity.”