Sr Margaret McElgunn, St Clare's Cavan and Tom Byrne, St Patrick's Conference, St Vincent de Paul. Photo: Adrian Donohoe

Big demands on St Vincent De Paul this Christmas

Literally hundreds of letters have poured into the St Patrick's Conference of St Vincent De Paul in Cavan Town from families seeking financial assistance this Christmas. An average of 30 letters have been coming in each week in recent times and in the run up to the festive season, that is expected to go up to 100 per week, according to the president of the conference, Tom Byrne. Mr Byrne says they have been inundated with requests for financial help. He pointed out that when they do their door-to-door collection, they are calling on some people who used to have jobs and were able to donate money. "Some of these people now may even be looking for help," he said. They will be commencing their door-to-door collection next week, Monday, December 1 and that runs for about a fortnight. Their team collects all around the town and for a radius of three to four miles outside the town. There will be around 30 people out doing the collection from St Vincent De Paul. They get a very good response to the door-to-door collection and they collected in the region of €90,000 last year. Tom pointed out that this amount is spread over 12 months and some of the things they help with are ESB and Gas Bills and money for students in second and third level. There is a huge increase in people looking for help with ESB and Gas bills, he says. They will be purchasing toys for Christmas and they will be dispersed to families, so that Santa Claus will make an appearance on Christmas night. Sr Margaret McElgunn says that toys are also donated to SuperValu Stores and other stores arising out of the Ryan Tubridy Radio Show appeal. Then the toys are collected by Tom Byrne. "We then give the toys to families that may in one way or another be struggling over the Christmas - there are plenty of them and there are more every year," said Sr McElgunn. She thanked all the people who donated toys to St Vincent De Paul last year and she looks forward to them rising to the occasion again this year, so that nobody is left out on Christmas morning.