Ballyhaunis Chamber recently handed over €2,000 to their local Western Care organisation, which was ten per cent of the total amount of money it raised through its online Christmas Lights fundraiser.
PRO of the Chamber branch, Martin Fitzmaurice, stated: " One of the most difficult aspects of 2020 was fund raising. So many organisations depend on it for their existence. In most cases it involves interaction with people – Dinner Dances, Festivals, ticket sales at shops, pubs, public venues, cake sales – the list goes on. During 2020 there were very few avenues available for fund raising as contact was so limited.
"In Ballyhaunis we ran into this problem with fund raising for our Christmas lights. Normally funds would be raised from local businesses, a ticket selling campaign at local shops and some county council funding. Last year, many of the businesses were not operating and we could not sell tickets openly.
"We came up with the idea of a Go Fund Me page. We succeeded in acquiring some great prizes from existing businesses and started to advertise the campaign. Thanks to the generosity of existing business people who were open, the general public and the generosity of Ballyhaunis people all over Ireland and indeed the world – we succeeded in achieving our target of €10,000.
"As part of our fundraiser, we decided to donate ten per cent of whatever we collected to our local Western Care organisation, who do so much good work in our area. They have similar difficulties over the last 12 months in trying to raise funds. Along the way an Irish company, McDonnells Curry Sauce heard of our campaign and also sponsored our campaign to the tune of €2,500. So as a result of our good fortune we handed over a cheque recently to Western Care for €2000.
"At the end of the day, thanks to the generosity of so many – each contribution resulted in the town of Ballyhaunis being lit up for Christmas 2020, a substantial donation to Western Care and many worthwhile prizes to a number of people who took part."
