The season of goodwill is well and truly upon us with just a week to go until Christmas Day and the local community have once again shown that the spirit of generosity is alive and well as they once again help the homeless and most vulnerable in Dundalk.
Save Our Homeless which has been up and running since 2016 to help out the homeless in Dundalk, continue to work tirelessly to help those in need and according to Sonja Van Kalkeren the response from the local community to help those in need has been overwhelming.
“We are a group of volunteers who get absolutely zero funding from anybody so we are completely reliant on the generosity of people in Dundalk and surrounding areas to ensure those in poverty can put food on the table and if they are not yet homeless can keep a roof over heir heads.
“Thankfully, Dundalk and the surrounding area is full of very generous people which has been shown again over the past two weeks with huge amount of donations coming into our office on Park Street. Unfortunately there are more people in poverty know than ever before and we are being pushed to the very limit as we try and help out people locally. We are volunteers and for the last week we have been putting in fifteen or sixteen hour days to ensure everybody in need gets a package for Christmas.
“The people of Dundalk, Ardee and North Louth always have our backs and we are eternally grateful,” stated Sonja.
“There are also a few brilliant businesses in town who always support us and all we have to do is call them and they deliver for us whether hat be through sponsorship or donations. We started Save Our Homeless Dundalk back in 2016 as it had got to the point where myself and my friends were walking through town and seeing homeless people left right and centre. We were compelled to try and do something as nobody else seemed to be looking out for them.
“We will spend the next few days putting together food packages and donations to those in need and hopefully that will bring at least some festive cheer to struggling families during what can be a very expensive time. Once again we want to thank all the brilliant people who have donated to us and we wish them all a very Happy Christmas,” stated Sonja.
Among the many donations received by the Save Our Homeless campaign included Castletown Pharmacy who have pledged to give all money raised from their annual Christmas raffle to the local charity. Michelle Byrne in the Bodhran Bar who donated al proceeds from a recent bingo night to Save Our Homeless. St Patrick’s Scout Group, Dromad Hire, The Tipsy Cow bar, Kathleen McSweeney, Patsy Byrne, Deaghlan McGovern, Helen Ní Mir, Almac Group Ltd, Aqua Ladies, service users from the Dundalk Wheelchair Association and Prometric were just some of the generous souls who contributed to the Save Our Homeless Christmas drive.
