This week, the Kilkenny Shop proudly handed over a cheque to the value of €30,000 to the St Vincent de Paul society. €15,000 of the donation was raised by Kilkenny customers in the company’s stores nationwide, with the owners of the Kilkenny Group, the O’Gorman family, offering an additional €15,000 to match the amount raised by its customers.
This was the third year of the initiative, started by Nassau St department manager Mary Keane in 2011, whereby customers were invited to donate to the charity in exchange for Kilkenny’s free gift wrapping service over the Christmas period.
For the past two years, the customers and staff of the Kilkenny Shops raised a phenomenal €30,000 each Christmas in their efforts for St Vincent de Paul.
Since 2011, Kilkenny Group CEO Marian O’Gorman has given the initiative her full support, and said she would “urge other businesses to undertake simple initiatives (as we have done in Kilkenny ) that can have a big impact on people’s lives. On behalf of myself and all at Kilkenny, we would like to commend St Vincent de Paul on their relentless hard work across the country and also to thank our customers for their kind and generous donations year after year”.
When presented with the €30,000 cheque by Kilkenny’s Mary Keane, Kevin McDermott, SVP Finance Manager, commented, “On behalf of all the volunteers and staff in the Society of St Vincent de Paul I would like to sincerely thank all the customers of the Kilkenny Group who supported this great initiative again in the lead up to Christmas. The monies raised through the initiative and then matched by the Kilkenny Group will certainly have a positive impact on the people and families we will help in 2014”.
