WITH 100 calls a day coming in to St Vincent de Paul Mid West, a Limerick social media influencer is calling on her followers to help put food on the Christmas dinner table for families in need.
Louise Cooney from Dooradoyle can reach a lot of people with 250,000 followers across her various social media platforms and each year she pairs with a charity to make an appeal for funding.
“St Vincent de Paul approached me. When I saw the figures, I felt I had to do something. The number of calls they are getting for help is currently arond 100 a day, up 20 per cent on last year,” Louise told the Limerick Post.
“People are having to decide between having heat and feeding their families, and that’s not a decision we want people to have to make any time, let alone at Christmas,” she said.
Louise has started a GoFundMe page with the aim of raising €5,000 for Vincent de Paul to buy food vouchers for people in need. So far, there is €3,000 in the pot.
“If we break the €5,000 target we’ll keep going because there are so many people who need help,” said Louise.
Louise has been working as an influencer for seven years. She quit her job in tourism marketing to forge her own path, running two businesses – the online Cloo Active.com, which sells comfy and practical leisure wear that can be worn every day, and wine spritzer brand 67 Spritz.
“For fun and a little extra incentive, I’ll be giving away three boxes of beauty products on a random basis to donors,” said Louise.
Anyone who would like to help put food on the table for a family at Christmas can find the GoFundMe appeal under Louise’s own name or through her Instagram page @louisecooney_.
