Mullingar Community College teachers to sleep rough for Focus Ireland

A group of 11 teachers from Mullingar Community College will spend the night of October 16 sleeping out in the school grounds to ‘Shine A Light’ for Focus Ireland and in doing so, raising awareness for homelessness in Ireland.

The sleep-out is part of Focus Ireland’s annual Shine a Light campaign which, for the second year is being run with the support of Bord Gáis Energy, patrons of Focus Ireland since 2015.

Thus far the ‘Shine A Light’ campaign has raised €5.2 million and Bord Gáis Energy haee committed more than €2.4 million to help combat family homelessness.

This year the partnership is aiming to raise €1.3 million to support people experiencing homelessness across the country.

Joe Rayfus, who has been a teacher in MCC for the last 15 years, is leading the group of teachers.

Asked why the staff choose to get involved in this initiative, Mr Rayfus said: “There are currently 8,702 people who are homeless and relying on emergency homeless accommodation. At this moment in time, Westmeath has 37 adults in official homeless emergency accommodation and another 1,222 households on the social housing waiting list, so it’s important to remember that homelessness is not just a social issue reserved for the streets of the capital.”

For this year’s event, Mullingar Community College staff have set themselves a target of raising more than €8,702 for Focus Ireland.

Thus far the response to their fundraising has been brilliant and they are asking the people of Mullingar and the surrounding areas to support their efforts.

Mr Rayfus said: “We have set up a fundraising page, where you can donate as much or a little as you can manage. Every cent counts and we hope to smash our target well in advance of the 16th.

“If people wish to donate, they can find the link to the donation page on the school website and on our school’s Facebook and Instagram pages.”

Asked about the students’ reaction to the fundraiser, Mr Rayfus said: “We’ve had great support from our student body. In fact, many have expressed their interest to become involved and ordinarily we would encourage their participation; however, with the current restrictions in place regarding social distancing, we felt that, for this year at least, keeping it to a small number of staff was best.”

Finally, Mr Rayfus wanted to thank the staff, students, parents and LWETB for their support in organising the event.