Lidl has raised an incredible €185,594 through its Christmas fundraising activity for Barretstown. An amazing €135,438 of this was raised in just two short weeks through one initiative alone – the nationwide trolley dash, which took place in every store around the country on Saturday, 13th December. Alongside this, the sale of Christmas cards and proceeds from Lidl’s Christmas Markets have raised even further much needed funds for Barretstown.
Winners of the Lidl Christmas trolley dash took to the aisles on Saturday morning, to dash for 3 minutes, picking up all of their favourite products for Christmas. In total, 141 lucky customers got their Christmas shopping for free, with the average of goods won per person totalling €350.
Speaking about Lidl’s Christmas trolley dash, Sinead Flynn, CSR assistant with Lidl Ireland, said: “We are thrilled with the result of our Christmas fundraising initiatives for our charity partner, Barretstown. In just two short weeks, Lidl stores across the country have raised over €135,000 from one initiative alone. And, a further €50,000 has been raised for the children’s charity from our Christmas markets in Dublin and Limerick, as well as through the sale of Christmas cards. We would like to thank all of our customers who have supported Barretstown through these initiatives and look forward to ramping up our activities in 2015 to raise even more much needed funds for Barretstown.”
Speaking about Lidl’s Christmas fundraising activity, Dee Ahearn, CEO of Barretstown, said: “We are absolutely delighted with Lidl’s fundraising activities in the run up to Christmas. So far €185,594 has been raised which is a phenomenal amount of money. These funds will go a long way to reducing our waiting lists and increasing our capacity to take part in more hospital outreach visits, which is a programme we launched just this year. Each year Barretstown has to raise €4.5m to stay operational and it’s initiatives such as these that help us reach that target.”
This year, Lidl hosted Christmas Markets in Dublin and Limerick for the first year ever. Visits to Santa cost €8 and rides on the carousel were €2 per person, with all funds raised from both going to Barretstown.