Fundraising Resprung at the Spring Lunch!
Over 400 people gathered in the Intercontinental Hotel last Saturday, 2nd April, for Spinal Injuries Ireland’s Spring Lunch. This annual event hadn’t been held for the last two years due to Covid so it was fantastic to see so many supporters getting glammed up and attending this popular event organised by Philip Quinlan, who sustained a C6 complete injury in 1999 and is quadriplegic.
Philip was MC on the day and introduced inspirational speaker Mark Pollock, who received a standing ovation after his address. They both urged the guests to dig deep as fundraising had been so badly hit during the pandemic due to the cancellation of so many events.
The event was kindly sponsored by the Institute of Education who, in addition to their sponsorship of the event, donated a raffle prize of a voucher worth €1,000. The raffle raised a record breaking €26,000. There was also an auction on the day which was incredibly well supported and conducted by Robert Hoban of Offr who proved to be extremely effective in encouraging the bids and maximising the revenue from fantastic lots such as a stunning set of garden furniture donated by Matt Salisbury of Domaine and Demeure Interiors and Dan Sheehan’s jersey from his first Six Nation’s Match for Ireland.
Spinal Injuries Ireland Head of Fundraising, Phil O’Kelly, said “We are extremely grateful to everyone who attend the event, donated prizes and gave so generously on the day. It is always a great event but was particularly enjoyable this year as it was the first fundraising event we have been able to host since 2019.”
Money is still coming in but the estimated total at this stage is an amazing €120,000.
Scroll down to see who was there.
