SHARE launches 2025 campaign
Students are calling on the people of Cork to check in with the elderly this Christmas as SHARE launches its 2025 fundraising campaign.
This year’s campaign runs from 12-24 December and will once again see students from schools across the city and county take to the streets donning the iconic yellow SHARE jackets.
As always, their goal is to raise awareness and crucial funds to support the elderly in Cork.
“56 years ago, a group of students set out to raise awareness about the plight of the elderly in Cork,” said chair of the 2025 executive, Ryan Wiley.
He continued: “While society has changed a lot in the 56 years since SHARE was started, there is no doubt that as people age, they can struggle in many different ways, from social isolation to the more practical challenges of living in a digital world and navigating health care systems that are increasingly fragmented.”
The main focus of the 2025 campaign is the refurbishment of Cnoc Mhuire, a SHARE property located in Shandon and currently home to 25 residents.
While the homes are loved by the residents, the complex is badly in need of modernisation. To address this, SHARE plans to put a major investment into the redevelopment which will include a new gardening and landscaping shed, a new community room, and the construction of new residents’ laundry facilities. These will be set against a backdrop of hard and soft landscaping and new garden planting.
Saoirse Twomey, part of the 2025 student executive said: “SHARE has created a special relationship between the elderly and the students of Cork.
“This year we are working hard to raise funds for the refurbishment of the Cnoc Mhuire complex. The upgraded facilities will bring more comfort, green spaces, and better shared services for the residents there,” she added.
The SHARE 2025 fundraising campaign will begin this Monday with Yellow Day, an initiative introduced in 2020 as an outreach to schools across Cork encouraging participation in an annual campaign.
“We all visit the elderly each week,” said Aoife Cotter of the student executive. “We check in on how they are doing, do a jigsaw, pick up leaves, run errands, sing a few songs, play cards or pool. I suppose what is most surprising is that you can form friendships with people of any age, once there are common interests.
“If you had told me before I started in SHARE that I could be good friends with a retiree I had never met, I would not have believed you. We’ve learnt so much from the experience, and I think it’s fair to say the benefits of the friendships go both ways,” added Aoife.