Public meeting tonight to discuss Christmas dinners for homeless plan
A campaign to provide a Christmas Day dinner for homeless people in the Athlone area is being spearheaded by a local woman who says she feels “very blessed” to have a roof over her head and to be in the very fortunate position of looking forward to the festive season.
“When I am out and about in Athlone, I see more and more tents and I am acutely aware of the number of people who are really struggling financially, and in so many other ways, in the run-up to Christmas this year,” says Lisa Malone from Bealnamulla.
She has organised a public meeting in St Kieran’s Community Centre in Tormey Villas this Friday night, November 18, at 7pm and is appealing to everyone who is interested in “coming on board” to assist with the Christmas Day dinner for the homeless to come along. The dinner will take place between 12 noon and 2pm on Christmas Day.
Lisa is a full-time carer for her 23-year-old son Conor, who suffers from the rare genetic disorder, Edhlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and says she “wanted to give something back” in return for the generosity of people in donating funds for her son to undergo live-saving surgery in Spain earlier this year which has resulted in him now being able to walk after being confined to a wheelchair for a number of years.
“I am not in a position to give back financially, so one day when I was sitting at my kitchen table with my husband and we were talking about how blessed we are, the idea of hosting a Christmas Day dinner for the homeless just came to me,” she adds.
Lisa put up a Facebook post on the ‘Does Anybody Know?’ page and says she got “an unbelievably positive reaction” to it. Now, she has collaborated with a small core group of five or six friends to plan the whole event and has already secured a room in St Kieran’s Community Centre to host the dinner.
“We have been inundated with offers of help already,” she says. “And we would be hoping to secure sponsorship for all the food so that we can provide a memorable Christmas Day for all those who have nowhere to go.”
Lisa Malone, who has four sons, says that once her family have “a roof over their heads, a clean bed and a full tummy” she considers herself “very grateful” in the run-up to the season of Christmas.
“My own mother had a great saying ‘there but for the grace of God go any of us’ and I really believe that. None of us know what tomorrow may bring, but what is in our power is to try to make life a bit easier for those who are less fortunate than we are,” she explains.
Lisa and one of her friends have also started a Christmas toy appeal and the core group who are organising the Christmas Day dinner for the homeless are also hopeful of being able to set up a regular soup run in the Athlone area before Christmas.