Three Hooves for Hospice animals from neighbouring farms in Derrinboy, Kilcormac , Co. Offaly were sold at the Golden Vale Mart in Tullamore at the end of February for €4,800. Farmers, Mr. Joe Deegan, Mr. Aidan Gath and Mr. Joe Molloy very kindly reared the animals and donated the proceeds of the sale towards the cost of building the planned Midland Regional Hospice. The sale price reflected the great job the three farmers concerned did in rearing the animals that were sold..
The Hooves 4 Hospice team wishes to thank most sincerely G V Mart, Tullamore, the farmers who reared the animals and the purchasers who valued the animals so highly.
A very gratifying feature of the Lions Clubs promoted Hooves4Hospice fundraising project, in aid of the planned Midland Regional Hospice, is the generosity of young people towards it. A recent example of that generosity was the presentation of a cheque for €1,200 by a group of students at Moate Community School to project chairperson, Pat Lalor. The students, Sarah Murray, Lorna Eagney, Christopher Kerrigan and Conor O’Brien, having competed in a national competition, emerged as one of only five teams who won five Irish Angus calves. That was their reward for successfully promoting Irish Angus to producers and consumers. The competition involved a video entry, interviews and finally a selection process in Croke Park. The General Manager of the Irish Producer Group, Charles Smith, honored the team by visiting the school in person to present the trophy they also won.
In a thoughtful and generous act, the team decided to donate the proceeds of the sale of one of the animals to the Hooves4Hospice fundraising project. That money will now be invested in purchasing young animals that will be reared, free of charge, by host farmers who have offered to take part in the project. There are now close on 400 hundred animals registered in the Hooves4Hospice herd. The project was launched in January of this and has been remarkably successful in spite of the restrictions on promoting the project with farmers due to Covid19. The extraordinary generosity of the farming community towards the Hooves4Hospice project is proof, if proof were needed, of the deep-felt need there is for a Regional Hospice in our region.
The website: www.h4h.midlandhospice.ie provides extensive information on the project.
St. Kieran’s NS, Broughall is a small rural school located on the outskirts of Kilcormac. Pupils benefit massively from the low pupil teacher ratio which exists within the school. With three full time teachers working in the school, this affords our pupils the opportunity to engage with all elements of the curriculum as well as engaging in various different exciting initiatives and projects.
Broughall is a rural community which has lost many of it’s loved ones as a result of cancer. We as a school felt that the efforts to build a hospice facility in the midlands region is something our school wanted to add our support to. ‘ Hooves 4 Hospice’ was the perfect opportunity for us to do something which would honour the memories of all those people in Broughall who lost their lives from cancer as well as being able to help in a practical way to put a much needed hospice facility in the midlands region. Michael Carroll the Chairperson of our Board of Management is a beef farmer and he offered to host the calf on his farm. Last March we were in the process of organising a family sponsored walk in Boora. We thought that this was a nice way to bring people from the school community and the local community together and raise money for a good cause, at the same time. When the restrictions came in, our fundraiser was put aside but not forgotten. When we returned to school in September, we did have to scale back our fundraiser a bit, so we held a fancy dress farmer sponsored walk within the school grounds. We raised enough money from the walk to purchase a calf and an extra 731 euros which we were in a position to donate directly to the hospice fundraiser.
The whole project has been a hugely positive experience for our pupils, staff and wider school community. We as a community have been devastated by the negative effects of cancer, so it was wonderful to be part of a project where we can help people who are affected by this awful illness. Our school is all about providing for our children’s future. In the future we want to see a state of the art hospice facility which people from our community can access. To be part of a project which makes this facility a reality was simply a no brainer for us.
Auction of purebred unregistered Limousin heifer for H4H
A purebred unregistered Limousin maiden heifer became the first animal to be sold in aid of the Hooves4Hospice fundraising project. The animal, kindly reared and donated by Mr. J. Colgan from Portarlington, was sold at the Golden Vale Mart in Tullamore. The animal fetched the handsome sum of €1,270 in aid of the building of a Regional Hospice in the Midlands
