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29th Apr 2020

These Dublin brothers are on a mission to raise thousands for frontline staff

Megan Cassidy

When two seemingly unrelated thoughts spark off of each other… an idea is formed!

This is exactly what happened when Tom Keogh of Keogh’s Farm came across two young brothers’ Facebook post about ‘superhero potatoes’. An idea sparked, and the #IrelandThanksYou campaign was born.

Senan (5) and Jonah Brady (7) created the Facebook post featuring frontline workers as superheroes in March, along with the slogan ‘Not all superheroes wear capes’.

Little did they know this would be the inspiration for a special initiative headed up by Keogh’s Farm, that will enable the people of Ireland to thank frontline heroes in healthcare.

 The Brady brothers’ Mum, Ruth Brady shares, “We had a family chat about what really makes a superhero and Senan said ‘Mum, it’s the people who defeat the virus’. Jonah made a list of people who really help people and they created their little frontline potato scene. We are so touched that a little arts and crafts at home to while away the hours has turned into something really positive and special.”

Tom Keogh was inspired: ‘If two young Irish boys can share such a meaningful message surely we, as a nation, can send an equally powerful message to our frontline heroes – simply say ‘thank you’.’

(Donate a Thank You gift to frontline workers here!)

Tom continues, ‘Like many, I have close family and friends who have suddenly found themselves on our frontlines, fighting for us in this invisible war against Covid 19. These Frontline heroes in the healthcare system go to work, day in day out, putting themselves – and even worse, their own loved ones in constant danger of infection.  In these unprecedented times, I realised there was no means for people who want to thank our heroes to do so.  So #IrelandThanksYou was born.’

So how does the campaign work?

Tom explains, ‘Leo gave us the slogan and our logo (seen on the t-shirts above) was drawn by Senan and Jonah. We’ve set a goal to get 5,000 special ‘IrelandThanksYou’ One4all gift cards to the value of €100 to 5,000 frontline heroes in healthcare. That means €500K to create 5,000 ‘Thank You’s’.  We’ve set the bar high, but I believe that Irish sentiment will match this. It’s a big number, maybe we will – maybe we won’t – but at least we tried.’

So how can you get involved?

People can simply visit www.irelandthanksyou.ie to donate to the fund to say ‘thank you’.  For every €25 donation, the person donating receives a free T-Shirt in a scrubs blue. All donations go directly to frontline workers in healthcare. Irish businesses are kindly joining forces to pay for the costs associated with the T-Shirts and all parties who created the campaign volunteered their time.

Who receives a thank you?  Tom continues, ‘As Senan and Jonah illustrated, these heroes don’t wear capes and they don’t fly. They may be a nurse, a doctor, a speech therapist, physio or support staff, anyone in the frontline in our ICUs and Covid wards healthcare system.’

Head to irelandthanksyou.ie to donate a gift to frontline workers now.

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