Penneys make 'massive' donation to Laois homeless support charity

Penneys has given a big donation to aid a Laois charity tackling homelessness.

Portlaoise Action To Homelessness (PATH) are giving a "massive" thank you to the clothes retail chain which has just doubled the size of its Laois store.

The shop held a collection trolley so customers could buy and donate items like hats and gloves.

"We have a MASSIVE MASSIVE THANK YOU to shout out from the rooftops to Penneys Portlaoise who gave us a huge donation of new clothes for our homeless friends. Not only that but the generous staff in the store and in headquarters also gave us a fabulous cash donation too!! We cannot convey enough words of gratitude but we know how much of a difference your donations will make to our homeless friends," PATH say.

The volunteer group travels to Dublin's streets every Wednesday and Saturday night with food drinks, toiletries and emergency supplies like warm hats/gloves/foil blankets/sleeping bags and tents for homeless people. They also support local people in need from their van at Portlaoise Church grounds at 7pm before they head out on the road.

PATH has thanked the many other donors helping them do their good works.

"We also collected some fantastic donations from the Parish centre today that many different people left in for us. Again THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

"Some of our volunteers were in our storage container until 9.30pm last night trying to sort through the great donations we have been getting lately, including the great collection of food we got in Tesco Fairgreen over the weekend. This collection was very much needed as at the moment we are helping at least 100 families in Laois with food support on a monthly.

"We have been inundated with many more requests but sadly we cannot meet the huge demand. Our waiting list is almost as long as our current family hamper list but we just dont have the supplies to help. Nor do we have the time. All of us involved in PATH are volunteers who give our time because we want to help others. Some of our volunteers usually help out every Monday evening. Some make sandwiches on a Wednesday and Saturday. Some volunteers go to Dublin on a Wednesday or Saturday and some volunteers help with the various collections/fundraisers etc we do.

PATH volunteers at a collection trolley in Tesco Portlaoise.

They describe their workload as volunteers.

"As committee members we give time every single day to our charity. Answering phones, answering emails, collecting donations, meeting people with emergency supplies, collecting hot food for our trips, loading and unloading our vans for our trips. The list is endless but we do it anyway. We spend time after our full time jobs, time away from our families, time that we are happy to give but would love for some people to understand that we cannot be at the beck and call of everyone anytime they need us. We became part of PATH because we want to help and unfortunately some people are trying to take advantage of that and then abuse us if we say we cant help.

"Thankfully the number of people who give us abuse is small but nonetheless it hurts. However the number of people who are grateful for our support and who rely on us weekly/monthly far outweigh the negativity we sometimes have to put up with.

"We as a committee are extremely extremely grateful that there are so so many of you out there who care and who help anyway you can. The lovely donations we got today and all those that will come in over the next couple of days and weeks WILL make a difference in someone else's life and so on their behalf to each and every one of you THANK YOU."

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