A charity event raising money for Aware Ireland was organised by the Bath Pub for June 6th. Aware is an organisation that provides support for people who suffer from depression, a condition that affects 450,000 people in Ireland at any one time.
The event was put in place by pub owner Brian O’Malley and Jane Palmer, who takes care of the Bath’s marketing duties. Over 100 people turned up to the cycle, which started off outside the pub and culminated in Howth, where the participants stopped for refreshments in The Bloody Stream Bar & Restaurant, whose own cycle run had been sponsored by the health drink VitHit.
The day’s financial target was between €2,500 and €4,000 but all expectations were surpassed and the overall figure exceeded €5,000. Upon the group’s return to the pub they were presented with a victory spread of complimentary drinks and pizza.
“The day went super,” Bath pub manager Brendan Waldron told NewsFour. “There was a lot of positive feedback. People were really generous, donating money right out of their own pocket. We’d obviously like it to be bigger and better next year but we realise what we can do now. Next year we will be setting the target a lot higher.”
This was not the pub’s first venture into charity events. For several years now the Bath has organised an event for Holles Street hospital, called Bells at the Bath, but it was decided that this year would be an event that would include both men and women, whereas before it had previously been all about the ladies.
Brendan told us about what prompted the pub to team up with Aware.
“We were thinking about different charities. We’ve done Holles Street, we’ve done hospices. We have all had friends who have had mental health issues; it’s something that affects everybody. We created the event on Facebook, did some in-house promotion work, mainly friends, regulars, stuff like that. We then got in touch with Aware and it is definitely something we will stick with again.”
By Craig Kinsella
