St Hilda's Services planning new community home in its 60th anniversary year
This new year is a significant one for St Hilda's Services in Athlone, which will commemorate its 60th anniversary in 2024.
With this milestone approaching, the charity is preparing to undertake a major fundraising drive in support of plans to develop a new-build community house in Athlone for individuals with intellectual disability and complex needs.
The project received a fundraising boost shortly before Christmas, when a cheque for €12,000 was presented to St Hilda's by the Rotary Club of Athlone.
This sum was generated from a hugely successful Gala concert organised by Rotary in the Radisson Blu Hotel in November.
More than 400 people attended the concert, which featured a performance by the Combined Bands of the Defence Forces along with special guest tenor Gavan Ring. In addition to the money raised for St Hilda's, a sum of €1,200 was generated on the night for the Defence Forces Benevolent Fund.
Sheila Buckley Byrne, CEO of St Hilda’s Services, said the €12,000 it received from the concert went "way beyond" expectations.
"It was a lovely event for St Hilda's to be involved with, because it was so community-driven," she told the Westmeath Independent.
"The concert was so well-run by Rotary. St Hilda's were just the recipients. All of the work was done by the members of Rotary."
St Hilda's provides a range of day, respite and residential services to children and adults with moderate to severe or profound intellectual disability and other complex needs. It supports 160 individuals in the wider community, plus 50 children in its special school.
Ms Buckley Byrne said the building of its new community house in the Athlone area was "our next project to try to address the needs of people on our wait list".
She said St Hilda's "has a site and planning (permission) for a high-quality community house" which "will cater for adult service users with an intellectual disability along with complex medical needs."
"Along with our existing suite of services, it will be a wonderful addition for our community in Athlone and its hinterland," she added.
The house, which is hoped to be developed this year, would have capacity for four service users and would be latest addition to the group of community houses currently operated by St Hilda's.
"At the moment we have nine community homes that we operate around Athlone and Moate. They are seamless in the neighbourhoods and very much part of ordinary living," Ms Buckley Byrne commented.
"We do have the support of the HSE in terms of the day-to-day funding (to operate the new house). We have secured that. What we don't have is the house, and we need a particular style of house to address the needs of the individual, which is why we've chosen to build.
"Any fundraising we do is very much targeted towards a specific project, and everything goes into it, 100%.
"We find that the response we get from the community is generally very good, so we're asking people to help us get this up and running because it is urgent, it is our 2024 project, and we need to get it up and running."
Willie Brady, the chairperson of the Friends of St Hilda's Services, said fundraising events in support of the new house would include a golf classic which is planned for Athlone on May 17.
"We're hoping this (community house development) will be a focal point to mark the 60th anniversary of St Hilda's," said Willie.
"St Hilda's is a local service, it’s synonymous with Athlone, and generally from my experience it gets great support from the community.
"In the last number of years, a satellite service was set up in Moate and Ferbane so that people there can have a service local to them, rather than being transported into and out of Athlone every day. So that has broadened the reach beyond Athlone."
Mr Brady has long been a supporter of St Hilda's Services, and said his eldest son has been one of its service users for more than two decades.
"It's a brilliant service, and it's continuing to grow and move with the times," he said.