Homebase staff20kmfor PietaHouse
STAFF at Homebase are keeping active and doing their bit for charity while they await the shop’s reopening - running 20km each to raise money for Pieta House.
Assistant Manager Daniel Malone said the charity is one which is close to all their hearts and one which staff felt was a very worthy cause.
A number of staff gathered at the store and ran their own Darkness Into Light around town while observing the required social distancing and all of those taking part completed 20km over the course of the week.
The event was a huge success and surpassed the original target of €500.
‘Obviously we’re closed at the minute so myself and the management team are doing a couple of hours in the store and in order to keep engaged and in touch with everyone we said we’d do something for charity. Pieta house is something close to my heart and everyone’s really so we said we’d do it for them,’ explained Daniel.
‘We decided to do 20km over a week and donate €20 each. Our target was €500 and by day three we were at €780 so we were delighted with that result.’
Daniel revealed he and a number of team members met up at 4.30am on the morning of Darkness Into Light and ran 5km around the town and back up to the Homebase site in the retail park.
‘ There were six of us doing it and we were all practicing social distancing of course,’ he said. ‘It was a lovely morning for it and we saw quite a few other people out doing it as well.’
Daniel said about 20 staff took part in the fundraiser and there were great camraderie amongst everyone involved.
‘ There is a great bit of craic about it,’ said Daniel. ‘We set up a group on Whats App to keep in touch with it all so it was great. It’s a tough time at the moment, obviously for all the staff with Homebase closed but they are making the best of things. The idea behind the event was twofold I suppose, first and foremost to fundraise but also as a way to keep in touch with the team.
‘We delighted it was such a success and that we achieved what we set out to achieve. The support overall for Pieta House this year has been absolutely brilliant to see.’
Daniel also revealed staff are looking forward to the summer and the reopening of the store, all going well later this month.
‘A lot of the staff would love to be in and back to normal, everyone’s getting texts asking when we’ll be open so all going well we’ll be back in on the 18th and we’ll get a bit of normality back.’