Wicklow ICA members make and donate 60 scrubs to nursing homes
ICA Guilds in Wicklow presented 60 sets of scrubs to nursing homes located throughout the county.
The project was started by Sinead Lawlor, a costume designer in Dublin who collaborated with ICA National President Josephine Helly to ask ICA volunteers to sew scrubs for various care centres and nursing homes nationwide.
With all the shops closed in Ireland and considering the quantities that were required for the project, the material was sourced in the UK and in Germany.
Sinead cut the patterns herself at the beginning but as the project went on, and the volumes required increased, pattern cutters in several places around Ireland helped on the project.
60 Sets of scrubs were made in County Wicklow which involved members from Guilds in various parts of the county – Ashford, Aughrim, Avoca, Delgany, Hollywood, Newtownmountkennedy, Roundwood and Wicklow Town. These sets of scrubs were then distributed among nursing homes and care homes in the county.
The Irish Countrywomen’s Association and Wicklow ICA Federation would like to thank particularly Wicklow Rotary Club for their generous donation of €2,000 towards the project and also thank generous Wicklow person who donated €1,000 anonymously.
Hilda Roche, Wicklow Federation President said that she was delighted with the efforts of all the Federation members who got involved.
‘There were eight Wicklow guilds involved and they all worked extremely hard. They completed 60 sets of scrubs and it involved a lot of members.
‘They were very diligent and had to work very hard as the scrubs are quite complicated to make. It took a lot of time.
‘Each Guild then donated the scrubs to nursing homes in their areas. I also have to thank Wicklow Rotary for their very generous donation of €2,000.
‘They answered our call just as we were about to run out of material so we are very grateful for their offer,’ said Hilda.
Nationally, over 1,500 sets of scrubs have been made to date which accounts for 12,000 hours of labour from the ICA members and €20,000 worth of material has been used in the project.
LAST week Gas Networks Ireland teamed up with East Coast FM and local restaurants in Wicklow to acknowledge local ‘everyday heroes’ who are making a difference in the community.
Listeners were asked to nominate their ‘everyday hero’ to be in with a chance of rewarding their hero with a €100 restaurant voucher from either Daata in Greystones, Bochelli in Greystones, The Pottery Restaurant in Arklow, Camille Thai in Greystones or Jack White’s in Brittas Bay.
Winners included Tom, a nurse who has been working on the front line and staying away from home to protect his wife and children who are cocooning at home. As well as Hazel, who has been supplying frontline workers with sandwiches.
Fran McFadden, National Customer Acquisition Manager, Gas Networks Ireland said: ‘We have over 700,000 homes and businesses in Ireland connected to the natural gas network and it is important for us to support the communities where we operate. It is wonderful to hear these stories which are great examples of how ‘everyday heroes’ are making a real difference at the moment.’