Return of the Christmas giving tree in Ballinalack

A Ballinalack-based health and wellness business has teamed up with local support agencies to bring Christmas cheer to young people experiencing difficult situations over the festive season.

'The Christmas Giving Tree' initiative launched at the Hydrate Alkaline Water and Wellness Store on Saturday, November 25 aims to brighten up the lives of young people from distressed backgrounds.
Colin Galligan of Hydrate Alkaline Water and Wellness Store explained how the drive works: “We have got together with local organisations who help children in disadvantaged situations. They give us a list of ages and names of kids, and on the tree here we have cards, with first name and the age of a child, boy or girl.”

Colin says after the response to last year's campaign they had to do it again: “This is our second year with the Christmas Giving Tree campaign and we would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt “thank you” to all who helped make last year’s campaign so successful.”
The gifts donated by the public range from toys, to clothes, to gift vouchers: “People come into our store, grab a card, then go off and buy a gift. They bring the gift and the card back to us and we distribute the gifts to the local organisations.”

Colin says the store will do everything to make donating easy: “People who can’t get as far as the store can contact with their information. If they can’t make it to the store they can send in a donation to our Hydrate store in Ballinalack and we’ll purchase a gift on their behalf. We just want to give back to the community locally, and we feel blessed to be here and to have this opportunity.”

Colin says the Christmas Giving Tree is going well: “We launched the drive on Saturday, November 25 and it continues each day from 11am to 4pm. We’ll have hot punch and mince pies and we would love to see people drop in to support this worthy cause.”