by Alan Jacques
A FORMER Limerick footballer has received an ‘outstanding commitment’ award for his incredible volunteer work after helping raise over €100,000 for Concern.
Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest humanitarian aid agency, recently acknowledged seventy one-year-old dairy farmer Mark Reidy, who played football for his village and county in the 1970s, at the Concern Volunteer Awards in Dublin.
Mark’s Croom Concern Group of about 20 volunteers have been holding the annual Concern Fast and Christmas bucket collections in their village for over 40 years.
According to the father-of-three, they have braved all weather conditions, including the infamous windy storms of 1997 and freezing temperatures and snow in 2010.
Mark accepted the award last month on behalf of the group and its volunteers before thanking the people of Croom and the surrounding towns and villages for their “incredible generosity” and support.
“I was a bit overwhelmed and didn’t expect any award for the work we were doing because our reward is collecting the funds that are going to help the starving and those who need it abroad,” Mr Reidy explained.
“Our satisfaction is knowing that in some way we are helping people that are a lot less well off than we are. We collect at the same place near the post office in Croom and had some years with bad conditions like in 2010 when temperatures were as low as -12C or in 1997 when winds got so bad we had to abandon our position,” he added.
Mark praised the former curate of the parish, Fr Willie Walsh, who set up the youth club that began collecting money for Concern in the early seventies.
“Fr Walsh started it off and we continued with the collections and over the years collected over €100,000. We did the 24-hour fasts and he played football with us.”
The Concern Volunteer Awards, now in their third year, celebrate the vital contributions made by the aid agency’s 1,600 volunteers in Ireland. Anyone who wants to volunteer to help raise much-needed funds for Concern can text the word SUPPORT to 51772.
