Local bank staff walk from Kilkenny to Dublin for Make-A-Wish charity

By Mary Dennehy

STAFF in Bank of Ireland’s contact centre in Tallaght have raised more than €5,000 for the Make-A-Wish children’s charity, after they took on a sponsored 27-hour, 120km walk from Kilkenny to Dublin.

As part of the bank’s ‘Be our Inspiration’ programme, which encourages staff to engage in fundraising activities, employees working in the contact centre, which is located beside the Maldron Hotel in Tallaght, embarked on the ambitious walk to raise funds for the charity.

After driving to Kilkenny, participating staff set off from the Bank of Ireland contact centre in Kilkenny at 9.30am on Thursday, March 30, arriving back to their own office on Whitestown Way in Tallaght on Friday afternoon.

The walk is one of a number of initiatives taken on by the office to raise funds for Mark-A-Wish, with staff member Aidan Quinn already swimming 10,000 lengths in the Arena gym pool and learning to play the bagpipes in previous fundraising drives.

Staff member Graham McInerney told The Echo: “The walk was brilliant and we’re delighted that we have raised €5,000 for the Make-A-Wish charity… with people still able to donate on our gofundme page.

“Alongside raising funds for a good cause, events like these really give staff the chance to communicate outside of the normal working day and it builds moral and gets people working as a team.”

To date more than €5,000 has been raised through the walk for the children’s charity, with members of the public encouraged to continue donating through the ‘Make a Wish Kilkenny to Dublin Walk’ gofundme.com page or by lodging money to account 77767568 sort code 906064 IBAN IE86 BOFI 9060 6477 7675 68.