Community
- Sunday November 17th, 2019 @ 14:00
Toy Drive Ronald McDonald House
St Patrick's Athletic is pleased to announce details of a Christmas Toy Drive in aid of the Ronald McDonald House at Crumlin Hospital.
The Ronald McDonald House is situated on the grounds of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin.
The House provides accommodation for 20 families every night who have seriously ill children in the hospital. To date, the Ronald McDonald House has catered for over 4000 families from all over Ireland.
Families can stay at The House for a few days, several weeks or even months.
Speaking to stpatsfc.com Sharon Keogh, Community Fundraising and Event Manager for the charity said that "The average length of stay at the Ronald McDonald House for a family is 21 nights.
One particular family spent 889 nights at the facility (including three Christmas's) whilst their little girl awaited a heart transplant.
She had an older brother and sister, and they were able to come and stay at the Ronald McDonald House every weekend with their parents, to be closer to their sister and to be a family again.
Being able to provide care and support for families like this is so important to us, and keeping them safe in their time of need is what we do.
"The House provides a 'Home away from Home' with wonderful support for families, so they can be close to their sick child.
The Hospital takes care of the sick child, the House takes care of the family. Nothing else should matter when a family is focused on healing their child.
They shouldn't have to worry about accommodation, finances, parking, where they will get their next meal. Parents and siblings can be close to each other and their sick child, be a family, be together. We at The Ronald McDonald House provide that.
We are sure this toy drive will be a great success and we are delighted to have the support of St Patrick's Athletic FC, a club with a strong community ethos".
Speaking at the launch of the St Patrick's Athletic Toy Drive in aid of the Ronald McDonald House, club Community Officer David Morrissey made the following comments, "We are delighted to be in a position to support the Ronald McDonald House this Christmas.
The staff at the facility do fantastic work in the most challenging of circumstances and provide services to families with sick children that are truly remarkable.
The period leading up to Christmas can be a difficult time of year for families and here at St Pat's we would like to make a small contribution to ensuring that families residing at The House don't miss out on the magic of Christmas.
We are asking Pat's Supporters, and anybody connected with our great football club (who are in a financial position to do so) to support this campaign by buying a Christmas gift for a child and dropping it to the club's office at 125 Emmet Road before the 20th of December."
From Monday the 17th of November there will be a Christmas Tree at the club's office where you will find tags representing the following headings, baby boy, baby girl, boy, girl, teen boy, teen girl.
Simply take a tag, buy a gift, and return it to the office before the 20th of December.
If you are unable to get to Richmond Park in the near future, simply choose one of the above categories and buy a gift for that category. For more information or queries, please contact david.morrissey@stpatsfc.com
