The Cork Senior football panel and management team will be invloved in an initiative tomorrow, Saturday, 30th May, to raise funds for Pieta House, the suicide and self-harm crisis centre.
The Cork panel and management will run the required distance it takes to run through each of the 24 clubs involved in the senior football set-up in the county, with each individual set to run about 10 kilometres.
The Cork captain Ian Maguire from St Finbarr’s will begin the run, with players set to run the total of 432km between them over the course of the day, finishing back with the team manager Ronan McCarthy in Douglas.
Cork football captain Ian Maguire said of the fundraiser:
“It was inspiring and heart warming to see the nation wide support for Pieta in absence of their main fundraiser Darkness Into Light, but we the Cork footballers recognise that we can not rely on one event to fund such an essential service.”
The fundraising campaign has a Go Fund Me page called “Cork Club Together 4 Pieta” on social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Pat Duffy of Pieta House said the cancellation of the “Darkness into Light” event this year due to covid-19 has been a major financial loss for the organisation, as “last year (it) accounted for €6 million which represents 45% to 50% of our annual fundraising.”
All services in Pieta House are completely free and we depend on the community for our funding. Overall, our annual funding from the community accounts for in excess of 80%.
Donations can be made at gofundme.com/f/corkclubtogether4pieta
Pieta House offers a confidential, free of charge counselling service in 15 centres around the country, and can be contacted on 1800 247 257 or text Help to 51444.