St Vincent de Paul makes special appeal for help

The Society of St Vincent de Paul, the same as other charities, has found 2020 particularly challenging from a fundraising perspective.

Its shop on Bishopsgate Street in Mullingar has been closed for most of the year, and volunteers have also been unable to hold church gate or other public collections.

President of the Mullingar Conference of St Vincent de Michael Donohoe estimates that income is down by some €35,000 this year.

The pandemic has also affected how the local conferences’ teams of hard working volunteers go about helping people. Pre-Covid, the organisation would be inundated with donations of food and toys, but this can’t happen this year, and so the annual fundraising appeal has gained greater significance.

In Mullingar where the Christmas hampers that in the past were provided to hundreds of local families have been replaced by vouchers. While demand did not increase during the early months of the pandemic, Mr Donohoe says that there was a spike around September and requests for help have remained high and are building steadily as Christmas approaches.

A significant number of those seeking help are working people in low income jobs.

“They often look for help with unexpected bills. They are getting along grand and then get one big bill – maybe their electricity was being estimated and then there was a reading done, which can knock them off a bit,” Mr Donohoe says.

This year the St Vincent de Paul are hoping that the public will help them continue to do what they have been doing for more than a century: coming to the aid of those members of the community who have fallen on hard times.

“We would be grateful for any help. We would usually have started our fundraising around October and what we raise at this time of year usually goes a long way to keeping us going throughout the following 12 months.”

“We are grateful for the support we have received over the years from people in Mullingar and the wider area. Because of Covid, our income from fundraising is way down and we are appealing for support once again.”

“We have our annual Christmas collection in the Mullingar area and we used to go door to door, but this year we sent out envelopes and people can post them in, drop them to the shops or leave them in the church.”

People can also make donations through their bank.

People in Mullingar and the surrounding towns and villages, can make donations into the St Vincent de Paul account at Bank of Ireland, Mullingar: BIC: 90-18-53 IBAN: IE19 BOFI 9018 5315 6071 39

For people in the Athlone area, which also covers Moate and Kilbeggan, donations can be made into the organisation’s account at the AIB branch at Costume Place: (IBAN) IE56AIBK93226437-41082, (BIC) AIBKIE2D.