April is Autism Awareness Month and today, (Tuesday 26th April) Currys Ireland announce that €75,000 has been raised for its charity partner ‘My Canine Companion’. A Cork based charity, which is Ireland's largest service dog provider, making a life changing difference to children and their families living with autism.
The cost to train each dog is approximately €10,000 and the money raised by Currys to date will cover the cost to train seven service dogs.
Currys hit the ground running since the partnership was announced six months ago, with a range of fundraising initiatives. This included partnering with Pennies, the leading micro-donation charity, to roll out in their 16 stores nationwide earlier this month.
Through Pennies, customers can support My Canine Companion by donating 50c when making a contactless or card purchase in store. Employee engagement was also strong from the offset with head office and store colleagues alike participating in a calendar of fundraising events including the November and February My Canine Companion walking challenges.
As well as raising much needed funds for the charity, the electrical giant is also taking steps to make its 16 stores autism friendly. Currys store collegues are currently receiving autism responsive training from the Willow Tree Foundation. The training programme is due to complete early next month in line with the launch of autism friendly shopping experiences in stores this summer.
Pauline Browne, Director of Marketing & E- Commerce at Currys Ireland said today: “We are absolutely thrilled to have raised €75,000 in such a short period of time for our charity partner ‘My Canine Companion’. They do amazing work supporting families in need across Ireland. We’re extremely grateful to our colleagues for their extensive fundraising efforts and to our customers who have supported the various initiatives. We made a target of €170,000 and will continue to raise funds to meet… or even beat our target by the end of the year. Launching autism friendly experiences in store this summer is another major success for the partnership. Providing training to our colleagues with an accredited organisation such as The Willow Tree Foundation is absolutely crucial to rolling the initiative out effectively.”
Niall Ruddy, CEO of My Canine Companion said:
“We are blown away with the figure raised by Currys during the first six months of our partnership. We would like to thank Currys colleagues and management for their fantastic effort.We look forward to our continuing partnership which is helping change the lives of children with autism all over Ireland. We are delighted that all Currys customers are able to contribute to our work through the Pennies initiative. Every 50 cents is making that difference and changing lives.”
About Currys Ireland Currys Ireland is the country’s leading specialist electrical retailer operating online at currys.ie and across 16 stores nationwide.
Currys helps everyone enjoy amazing technology, however they choose to shop with us. Currys offers more products, more knowledge, and more advice for customers to make technology more accessible and affordable for everyone. The full range of services and support available instore and online makes it easy for customers to discover, choose, afford and enjoy the right technology for them, throughout their lives.
Slán go fóill,
Danny