Butt Run raises €12,565 for Lourdes trips
CO WEXFORD children with special needs will be able to travel to Lourdes this Easter thanks to the efforts of the Butt Run committee who raised €12,565 in their 2018 run.
The sixth annual Butt Run took place on Sunday, October 28, and proved to be a great success with 145 participants getting involved. The organising committee worked hard at ensuring everything ran according to plan and blessed with ideal weather conditions added to the overall atmosphere of the event.
The range of vehicles included vintage and classic tractors and cars with many harking back to the golden age of motoring in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
Fr Odhran Furlong, who has been associated with the Butt Run from its early days when Ned (The Butt) Whitty founded it, said: `All the money raised from this event will be given to Group 129 of the Irish Pilgrimage Trust.’
Group 129 is comprised of volunteers from the locality who travel each year bringing children with special needs to the shrine at Lourdes. All the volunteers pay their own way on the pilgrimage but commit as a group to raising funds so that the young people involved can travel at no cost to their families. `Any surplus money is used to run respite homes in Wexford and in Galway for families of children with special needs,’ Fr Furlong said.
The Irish Pilgrimage Trust is a registered charity in Ireland and for over 40 years it has been organising a pilgrimage styled holiday to Lourdes for young people with special needs from all over Ireland.
People travelling at Easter time divided into small groups of around 10 young people and 12 volunteer carers who stay in local hotels while in France. During the summer they bring groups to Hosanna House in Bartres, near Lourdes, for what is a unique experience for carers and guests.
The organisers thanked the volunteers and bike marshals who helped ensure the safety of the participants and other road users while the run was taking place. Words of thanks were also conveyed to the event’s sponsors including J Ryan Haulage, Alan Morrissey’s Pub, Cassagh, the Horse & Hound, Ballinaboola and Max Power.