Mayo girl among Barretstown campers calling on the public to share a virtual hug
Nine-year-old Kate Burke represents Mayo as 32 Barretstown campers, from every county in Ireland, call on the Irish public to share a virtual hug for Barretstown.
Barretstown, the children’s charity in Co. Kildare that offers free, specially designed camps and programmes for children and their families living with a serious illness, has had to cancel several key fundraising events and activities that provide crucial income for the charity.
Donations collected from the virtual hug campaign will help support the families who were due to attend Barretstown over the coming months. These children are now more isolated than ever before and need Barretstown’s therapeutic programmes during this challenging and difficult time.
To send a virtual hug for Barretstown, share or post the animated Barretstown HUG on Barretstown’s Facebook page to your own social page and tag as many friends and family as you like. You can also text HUG to 50300 to donate €2.
Speaking about the campaign, Dee Ahearn, CEO of Barretstown, said: “Barretstown is doing everything it can to continue to support vulnerable children during this very challenging time. Children who are going through treatment for serious illness already face long periods of isolation as their immune systems are often compromised, and the current crisis is only making it even harder for them.
“The Covid-19 crisis is having a very significant impact on our ability to raise the essential funds needed to support our families and we are dependent on voluntary contributions for 98% of our income. We have already had to cancel several of our key events and activities that provide crucial income. We created the hug fundraising campaign as we believe we all need a little positivity in our lives at the moment. We are asking people to send a virtual hug to someone they care about and bring a little Barretstown magic into their day.”
As a response to Covid-19, the Barretstown team created Barretstown Live, a new online interactive platform to livestream Barretstown’s programmes into homes nationwide. These programmes are being delivered every Saturday to families who were due to come to Barretstown and will continue to run for the foreseeable future. In advance of participating in these programmes, families receive a Barretstown Live kit which contains everything they need to participate in activities such as arts and crafts, bakery and discovery.
Barretstown is also sharing the magic of Barretstown with children across Ireland through Facebook live broadcasts taking place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m.