Business chiefs to ‘rough it’ for charity
To date 17 personalities have signed up for a “sleepover” on Oct 18 at Cork City Gaol and they’ve been set the target of raising €5,000 each for Focus Ireland.
Volunteers include Cork Chamber chief executive Conor Healy; Mary Hopkins of Hopkins Communications; Ernest Cantillon of Electric; and Michael Magner, chairman of the Cork Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation.
This is the first time such a fundraiser has been staged in Cork and it follows on from the success of the inaugural Dublin event last year which raised more than €370,000 for the charity.
The money helped Focus Ireland to prevent many householders from losing their homes last year and help almost 400 households secure a home.
Over the past two years alone, the number of people seeking help in Cork has doubled and Focus Ireland recently moved to a bigger office on South Mall and increased staff from three to 12 to deal with the massive spike in demand for vital services.
The charity provides up to 650 homes across the country for people who were previously homeless or at risk. A total of 22 of these are in Cork.
A tenancy support and settlement service is also provided in the city.
“Worryingly one in seven people currently using homeless services is a child and last year Focus Ireland helped more than 8,000 people who were homeless or at risk of losing their home,” Focus Ireland Cork manager, Gerard Spillane, said.
“The recession is taking a terrible toll on families all over Ireland and nearly 20% of mortgages are in arrears and many thousands of households are struggling to pay their rent. Focus Ireland can support people in this situation and work to try to prevent them from losing their home,” Mr Spillane said.
Conor Healy said he was appealing for other business people to get involved. Contact (01) 8815900 or see shinealight @focusireland.ie
