St Catherine's Helping Hands Appeal

Newcastle, Co. Wicklow.

2008-11-10T23:56:00.006Z

St Catherine's Association in Newcastle has served the people of Co. Wicklow for more than 30 years now and hundreds of families have benefited from the dedication and professionalism of the staff in caring for and educating children with special needs from all over the county. St. Catherine’s Services also provide respite and residential facilities. The services are provided from birth to eighteen years and it is truly a holistic service for the entire family of anyone with a disability.

In recent years the challenge has been to expand to meet the needs of the growing population in Co. Wicklow without compromising on the quality of education and care delivered to the children and their families. As the recent budget has shown, all services to these vulnerable children are in jeopardy during this time of economic uncertainty. This uncertainty is causing anxiety and distress to many families availing of services provided by St. Catherine’s.

This situation has prompted parents to launch the “St. Catherine’s Needs a Helping Hand Appeal.” Parents are asking the wider County Wicklow community to subscribe to the St Catherine's Fundraising Appeal. A small monthly donation from you might be the helping hand that ensures St Catherine's can continue to provide these vital facilities for future generations of Wicklow children.

As the appeal was launched, Mr. Harry Cullen, Acting CEO of St. Catherine’s Service stated that “it has become apparent in recent weeks, children attending St Catherine's services are not going to escape unscathed from the Government's cuts. Parents of these children are well used to fundraising and lobbying to ensure their children can access services to allow them to develop to their fullest potential, but it is a new and horrifying reality to be faced with the prospect that those facilities may now have to be curtailed significantly.”

Speaking on behalf of the parents, Sheena Byrne said that “Thankfully, most families in the county have never had to call on the expertise provided by St Catherine's and maybe they never will. Perhaps some reading this may someday find themselves needing help for a child, grandchild, niece or nephew. It is difficult for parents who have already traveled this road to explain to others the relief of realising that thanks to the vision and foresight of parents and professionals of 20 and 30 years ago there was an excellent service up and running when it was most needed. It now falls to us as parents to make a desperate call for help to the people of Co. Wicklow.”

Another parent, Joanne Kelly, commented that “this sense of relief drives us to do all in our power to ensure that St Catherine's endures the current crisis. We owe it to the parents of children with intellectual disabilities 20 or 30 years from now to repay the debt due to those who have gone before us.”

Main St Catherine's site.

2008-11-10T23:24:00.000Z

For more information on St Catherine's and the services they provide in Co. Wicklow, please visit their main website here.

Direct Debit Mandate.

2008-11-10T23:09:00.011Z

Please print out and complete the form below and send to:

St. Catherine's Association,

St. Catherine's EDC,

Newcastle,

Co. Wicklow.

To print the form just click on the image and then print it.

Jackie's Story

2008-11-10T23:06:00.003Z

I have three wonderful, beautiful children one of whom is autistic. My middle child, Denis, is lucky enough to be a student in an incredible school specifically for children with special needs run by St. Catherine’s Services.

I remember well the first day my husband and I, still raw from the diagnosis of autism, went to visit this special place. From the surrounding fields full of yellow flowers, a donkey grazing between hedges full of blackberries, to the warm, confident welcome we received, we were convinced very quickly that this was the place for Denis. We were brought to meet some of the other children. We were hesitant, with the usual unhappy images in our minds, of autistic children rocking back and forth, disconnected from everything around them.

What a different reality we met! The environment was bright, warm and happy. The children were busy working with their tutors. There was plenty of noise, laughter and high spirits, much like any other class room I have been in. This is the place where Denis has been attending school for the last two and a half years. In that time he has learned so much. The services that St Catherine’s provide are superb, he has had occupational therapy, speech therapy, orthotics for the correction of one of his feet…not even to mention the dedication and affection of his amazing tutors.

However, due to inadequate government funding, for this ever expanding service St. Catherine’s needs a helping hand now. Many of the parents are running various fundraising events but we really need the support of local people who are fortunate enough to have these services available in County Wicklow. I hate to say it, but nobody knows when somebody they love is going to need them. I would personally ask the people of this County Wicklow, especially in this season of goodwill and generosity, to think local and support a truly fantastic service that gives so much to these children.

Jackie Caruana,
Denis's Mammy.

Seán's Story

2008-11-10T22:38:00.005Z

Hello,

My name is Seán O’Conri and I’m 7 and a half years old. When I was a baby I had Ohtahara syndrome and had seizures that hurt my head a lot. My mammy said that she was very scared because she didn’t know how to help me, but then St. Catherine’s Services called her and made everything ok.

I go to St Catherine’s Special School and it is the best school in the world. They got me a cool wheelchair that does lots of things and is blue which is good because I am a boy. They have a bus which collects me in my chair from my house every day and brings me home again after school safe and sound and the driver is very kind and funny.

My teachers do lots of things with me to help me learn how to do things for myself and my mammy says they are angels and I think she is right. They bring me swimming and help me paint pictures and they even made special shoes to make my legs big and strong. Sometimes my mammy cries when she sees the cards and pictures I bring home for her and daddy that I made in school with my teachers but she always says it’s ok that she’s crying a happy cry.

I think that without my school I would go crazy because I would have to sit at home with nothing to do but listen to my sister who is very loud and makes me watch Barbie instead of Spongebob Squarepants which is my favourite show. Sometimes my teachers play the music from the Spongebob movie when I get upset at school and that always works. I think it’s brilliant that they know me so well and love me almost as much as my mammy does.

That is why I am very sad right now because I might have to say goodbye to some friends because St. Catherine’s may not have enough money to keep all the services going. St. Catherine’s is in a lot of trouble right now and has to stop a lot of the lovely things that they do which is very scary. I think that people who are heroes, like the people in my school, should not have to be in trouble like this just because of silly money. But they are, so they really, really need your help.

I’m going to write to Santa this year and ask him to help instead of giving me a present. Maybe he will tell other mammies and daddies in Ireland about St Catherine’s so they can help too, I hope so.

Thank you for reading my letter

Love from

Seán

Flora Women's Mini Marathon.

2008-03-10T10:55:00.002Z

We are hoping the ladies of Wicklow will enter this year's Flora Women's Mini Marathon en masse to raise funds for the work of St Catherine's. We are currently putting together information leaflets and sponsorship cards for distribution, but interested parties should start training for the big day and register to participate online at www.womensminimarathon.ie.

Here's the first draft of the information leaflets:
In case those email contacts aren't fully legible, here they are again:

annemariemitchell@stcatherines.ie

olivermoroney@eircom.net

Come on girls!

Upcoming Fundraising Events

1972-10-10T22:41:00.039+01:00

Here's a list of Events in the coming weeks which will help to raise desparately needed funds for St. Catherine's. Please try to support these events!

When?	Where?	What?
25th May	Newry City	Marathon
1st June	Dublin City	Flora Women's Mini Marathon
14th June	Willow Grove	Vintage Fun Run at Willow Grove
28th June	France-Nice	Tom Healy & Con Ring

If you are planning any events yourself in aid of St. Catherine's please get in touch with us and we will add to the list of events above.

News

1972-10-10T21:53:00.002+01:00

The Mini Marathon is coming and it's time to start loosening those limbs in preparation for the big day.

Ironman Triathlon

1972-10-10T21:51:00.003+01:00

On Saturday 28th June 09, two Dublin Fire Fighters, Tom Healy and Con Ring are competing in the France-Nice Ironman Triathlon.

This entails swimming 3.8Km, cycling 180Km and running 42.5Km.

Tom and Con are doing this challenge in aid of St. Catherine's Association Ltd.

Please support and encourage both Tom and Con in this challenge.

For further information, please contact Anne Marie Mitchell on 01-2819485 Ext: 0

Jennifer's story

1972-10-10T21:26:00.007+01:00

When your baby boy fails to develop as expected, most people will tell you not to worry – all children are different, and they take their own time to speak, interact and take an interest in people. That was the strangest thing. Our youngest lad never looked at anyone. A lively group of people could enter our house, exchange excited hellos and news, and our independent two year old just continued to line up his trains, as if nothing at all had happened. The public health nurse suggested that we try to “play with him”, or maybe “introduce him to some books and other stimulating toys”. Like we hadn’t thought of that. Then a radio programme featured an item on autism, and to my deep and lasting horror, they described my little boy – to a T.

So we made some calls and went to visit the esteemed Professor Michael Fitzgerald, who informed us that our boy displayed classic symptoms of autism. At that point, there was nothing on offer for us locally, or even in the county, and although we were able to avail of an excellent home tutor, who got him started with ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), he needed more. It was only when St Catherine’s Barnacoyle Pre-school opened in February 2004, that he was given his best chance to become an integrated member of society. Timing was key, as we had been told that at preschool age, his brain was malleable enough to accept new ways of doing things, and new ways of thinking. Trying to break into his world was no easy task, but they did it. The staff of Barnacoyle are heroes in our house – they unlocked our little man’s psyche, persuaded him to share himself and his ideas with the world, and forever more, we will be grateful. ABA is something of a magic wand, in our opinion, and the ABA experts and tutors at Barnacoyle are nothing short of magicians. It’s not an easy magic wand, but it’s the one thing that works step by step, day by day, term by term and it transformed our son from an antisocial, self-absorbed, obsessive into a happy, carefree and capable person, who is making great strides at mainstream school.

Autistic children need the investment of time and financial backing when they are young enough to have a fighting chance at a typical life. A typical life means they are unlikely to place a financial burden on the state in later life, so in purely financial terms, it’s a good investment. A few years of the right sort of training at the early stage, versus a lifetime of being locked in their own heads and never sharing their brilliance, perhaps never getting the chance to earn and contribute, and needing huge amounts of help for the rest of their lives. Our son will get through school, and hopefully college and go on to earn his living and hold his head high. Barnacoyle gave him this gift. It was the best gift he will ever receive, even though he himself doesn’t know that yet. All we are asked for is to set up a standing order of €5 per month to help save this facility. For us, we don’t even need to think about it. Anybody out there who may consider helping in the same way, please know the good you are doing. Please know how much your contribution helps people like my son. There are hundreds of charities asking for your support, but you never know when a child close to you may be diagnosed with autism, and if we don’t help, there may be no facilities available to help them.

Vintage Fun Run, at Willow Grove, Kilpeddar

1972-10-10T20:50:00.002+01:00

Come and have a great afternoon out with the family…There’ll be Vintage, Cars, Tractors and Bikes.

We’re holding a draw, with great prizes.

Tickets available on the day.

Sunday 14th June 09

At The Willow Grove, Kilpeddar

From 12 noon

For More Information please contact: Noel on 086-8147619 or Liam on 086-2696106