DIFE students help to raise €4,000 for Lourdes Hospital
FROM a family of blood-spattered, brain-eating zombies to menacing clowns to Mrs. Browne, a whole host of ghoulish figures descended on Drogheda Institute of Further Education (DIFE) last Halloween to raise funds for the Children’s Ward of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
Organised by the college’s Childcare Department, led by teacher Carmel McKeown, this Halloween fancy dress event saw DIFE’s canteen spooktacularly transformed, with face painters on hand and all manner of supernatural treats for sale.
Generously supported by a long list of local businesses who donated a range of items to be raffled off, the total sum raised by this festival of fright came to €4000. Receiving the cheque last week on behalf of the hospital, Heather Murphy, Clinical Nurse Manager of Paediatrics, expressed her thanks to the students whose hard work made the event possible.
The much appreciated funds, she noted, will contribute towards the purchase of essential items such as heart monitors and recliner chairs, the need for which is ever more difficult to meet within increasingly challenging budgetary constraints.
Events such as this, Heather also reminded the students, serve not only to provide financial support for vital, cash-strapped services but to shine a light on the work of regional paediatric wards, as opposed to centres of paediatric care which more often benefit from fundraising efforts.
This was a very valuable exercise in continuing links between Drogheda Institute of Further Education and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.