Millions of pages turned for charity
More than 30,000 youngsters have made it another highly successful year for the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s readathon, raising more than €1 million through sponsored book reading.
Up to 80 of them packed the Conrad Hotel in Dublin yesterday for a prizegiving ceremony hosted by Den TV’s Geri Maye.
“She’s really excellent with them,” said MS Society chief executive Michael Dineen. “I’ve never seen the children respond like this before.”
There were a host of prizes for the children and schools who had been drawn out of the hat on Den TV. Matthew Loftus of Castlerea, Co Roscommon, won the first prize of a PC with a DVD player, printer and a digital camera. Michael Moloney of Athlone, Co Westmeath, won a trip to Old Trafford. Sam Wynne from Rathmines, Co Dublin, won a helicopter ride for four and Paul Kelly from Wicklow won a mountain bike.
The €1m raised was a major increase on last year’s €800,000. The MS Society will use the money to fund its respite centre in Rathgar, Co Dublin, and to support the 6,000 people with multiple sclerosis in Ireland. The society has regional centres in every health board area and provides free counselling services to all its members.
“This year has been a milestone for us. We’re over the moon about reaching €1m.”
As far back as the 18th century, French philosopher Montesquieu was praising reading, saying, “I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.”
The readathon, designed to encourage reading and to raise money for charity, was created in 1988 by Roald Dahl.
With 500,000 books finished during this year’s readathon, the MS Society said the true popularity of reading was obvious. “Per head of population, our readathon is the best in the world. It is very popular in the US and Canada but our returns far outshine them,” said Mr Dineen.
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