Tag - Fundraising

Nutgrove – At the heart of the community

July 25, 2017

Nutgrove’s annual open day was a huge success, raising vital funds for children with autism and their families.

Back once more for the third year in a row, Nutgrove fire station’s annual open day proved a big success.Showcasing Dublin Fire Brigade and a number of other emergency response organisations, providing entertainment for kids of all ages, and displaying several vintage (and a few modern) emergency services vehicles, proceedings from the day were in aid of Snowflake, a children’s charity that provides support for kids with autism, as well as their parents and siblings, organising social events, support meetings, workshops and other supports.

Turnout on the day was huge, with the station yard and engine bay thronged from early on. Attended by An Cathaoirleach Cormac Devlin from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Dublin City Council Lord Mayor Brendan Car and Chief Fire Officer Pat Fleming, the open day also played host to a number of emergency services organisations.

“It went really well, we had a few new attendees such as Dublin Airport Fire Service, the Defence Forces and the Coast Guard. The Green Goddess vintage appliance also made a welcome return after a break last year, alongside the RSA, BUMBLEance, the Order of Malta, 501st Legion Garrison, Heroes Unite Ireland, two fire tenders owned by Liam Moore, and an ex-Dublin Civil Defence truck owned by Jerry from Dublin Mountain Rescue,” explains Derek Riordan, a firefighter on C watch who has been instrumental in organising the annual open day. “It goes without saying that having CFO Fleming, and three of the Assistant Chief Fire Officers, there was fantastic, a major highlight. It was nice for the senior officers to come and see the fruits of our labour. Dublin’s Lord Mayor and An Cathaoirleach Cormac Devlin attending on the day was another major achievement for us. The day couldn’t have gone better.”

Derek Riordan, CFO Pat Fleming, Lord Mayor Brendan Carr and ACFO Dennis Keeley.

Also there was Blood Bikes East (BBE), which has been in operation since 2012, using a fleet of five bikes and a car donated by Annseley Williams and Skoda Ireland for the year to transport blood and other emergency items out of hours. “We’re full on, full service emergency service out of hours transport. From 7pm Monday to Friday we’ll go from the lock up and around, we’ll get calls from the different hospitals around the city. We’ll use the Pan European bike to go to the country, link ups with other blood bike groups. And then on the weekend it’s 24 hours a day for Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays,” says Denver Breslin, BBE committee member.

As BBE isn’t State-funded, they have to turn to the public to keep their doors open and their engines on. They set up their stall at No 8’s open day to show their support, and also to raise awareness about what they do. “It’s all about visibility and getting the publicity from it. We’re not here collecting today but it’s about getting the name out there and getting the public’s perception of us, because a lot of people don’t actually realise that we’re not HSE-funded or we’re not Government-funded,” Breslin adds. “Anybody that we speak to is surprised that we’re all volunteers, we do it out of our own time, we don’t take a wage. A lot of people are surprised by that.”

A cheque for €4,312 was presented to Snowflake in early May.

Community support

Derek is quick to point out that Nutgrove’s open day is by no means a one-man show. Support in organising the day came from all quarters – the crew of C watch, Dublin Fire Brigade administration, colleagues in the voluntary emergency response groups as well as the local and wider community. An Garda Síochána assisted with the traffic plan to ensure a steady flow on the day; shops like Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, SuperValu in Templeogue and Churchtown and even Dunnes Stores in Citywest pitched in with teas and coffees; DFB itself provided funding for the DJ and face painters. Local woman Alison Behan again lent her culinary skills, providing around 250 muffins for hungry attendees, again refusing to take any compensation for her time and expenses.

In addition, Starbucks in the nearby Nutgrove Shopping Centre sent across two of their employees to help dispense drinks throughout the afternoon, accompanied by shortbread biscuits, cakes, and their own brand of coffee. Any of the money that came in was 100 per cent profit,” says Derek. “I’d like to say a big thank you to Felicity Gill from Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown County Council, she played a major part. The lads on the watch were absolutely fantastic, nobody said no to anything. All of the watches were great, they all contributed in some way, shape or form which was brilliant. We also had a lot of donations from DFB family and friends.”

The result of these efforts, and the weeks and months of planning, was a cheque for €4,312 that was presented to Snowflake in early May and which will undoubtedly be put to good work. “It’s a fantastic cause,” Derek explains. “One of the lads on the watch, his cousin’s son has autism and he was involved in setting up this children’s autism support group. Anything relating to autism, whether it be young or old, is a worthy cause.”

Sarahs’ record row

July 18, 2017

WebEditor

Events, Members, News, Sports

Dublin Fire Brigade’s Sarah Good and rower Sarah Doyle have set and smashed a world record for tandem rowing this year.

On St. Patrick’s Day 2017, while most of the country was celebrating our national holiday with a pint and a parade, one of Dublin Fire Brigade’s personnel was down in Passage West Rowing Club, Co Cork. Taking turns over the course of the day, Sarah Good (a nine-year veteran working on A watch No 8) and Sarah Doyle (a friend of Sarah’s from outside the world of DFB) managed to set and break an Irish and world record respectively for the 100km tandem row, finishing in an impressive time of 7 hours 29 minutes and 22 seconds. “Another in a long string of ridiculous ideas!” Sarah Good explains with a laugh.

Though it’s quite the achievement, the two Sarahs’ record-breaking effort wasn’t simply a matter of personal pride. As firefighters tend to do, they were raising funds for a very worthy cause (which undoubtedly provided some motivation) – children’s hospice and palliative care provider LauraLynn. As Sarah explains, her fiancé Doug’s nephew passed away several years ago, having received a lot of love and care from the team at LauraLynn. “Obviously the family feel very strongly about the organisation and try to give back as much as possible,” she says. “I try to row in when I can, try and do a bit of fundraising whenever I can. It’s an unbelievable organisation – it’s one of those charities that you don’t have to work very hard fundraising for, because people want to give to it. It’s just extraordinary.”

Training day

Although Sarah is no stranger to rowing machines, her friend Sarah Doyle is the rower, and regularly competes in events around the country. However, despite completing a number of half marathons and marathons, she had never competed in a 100km distance event before. Given that Sarah Good was in the same age group and weight class – and willing to give it a go – team LauraLynn was formed.

“There was about four months of prep,” says Sarah. “I do a lot of other training for other disciplines and sports, and with that your fitness and strength stands to you. It was just about incorporating rowing into my training programme. We have a rower in the station thank God, so I was able to get miles in while I was at work.”

Facing a 100km row might seem like a daunting task (and there’s no doubt that it is), but the key to overcoming the hurdle is by breaking it into small chunks. Both rowers worked in 2km intervals, swapping over roughly every eight minutes while trying not to lose any momentum. “The structure of the event was different than anything I had done before, because we were working as a tandem team. She was going, then I was going – it was a really long event where half of it you were active, and half recovering. It was unusual. The transitions were a bit chaotic, but it was great,” says Sarah. “We had in our head [to finish in] eight hours. I knew fairly soon into it that we would be able to get seven and a half hours, and we really just got that in our head then.”

Record confirmed

The team’s efforts paid off – as the odometer clicked past 100km they had set an Irish and world record in their category, raising almost €1,000 for LauraLynn. “We named the team for the day LauraLynn, so the record will go into LauraLynn’s name – something nice for them to hang on the wall. It was brilliant, really cool,” Sarah explains, while noting they weren’t alone down in Cork. Both of their respective other halves provided support from start to finish. “They were there for the entire time – Doug drove me down, drove me back up from Cork to go to work straight after it, gave us physio on the day and more. The two of them were just brilliant, they were great. It really is a team of four for a two-person event,” Sarah adds.

Now that she’s had a taste of success with oars in hand, does Sarah see herself taking up rowing on top of her other sporting interests? “I would have an interest in doing the odd thing for sure,” she says. “It would be something you’d tip in and out of, try another event, especially as Sarah is involved in it and likes to compete in events as well. It’s something different, it’s good.”

Care and support

LauraLynn provides palliative care and support for children with life-limiting conditions and their families, allowing parents to act as parents rather than full-time carers. Supporting children from birth to age 18 for free, LauraLynn is also piloting a home care programme in Dublin North-East and Dublin Mid Leinster, providing hospice care for children in the comfort of their own homes.

To learn more about LauraLynn or to donate/fundraise, phone 01 289 3151, email info@ lauralynn.ie or visit lauralynn.ie.