Moate students donate Angus calf proceeds to hospice fund

Students from Moate Community School have donated €1,200 to the Hooves4Hospice fundraising project, in aid of the planned Midland Regional Hospice.

The hospice project aims to deliver a regional hospice for the midlands, at a location in Tullamore. At the moment, the midlands is the only region without a Level 3 hospice.

The students, Sarah Murray, Lorna Eagney, Christopher Kerrigan and Conor O’Brien, presented a cheque to project chairperson, Pat Lalor.

The students were one of five teams nationally to win five Irish Angus calves as part of a national competition.

That was their reward for successfully promoting Irish Angus to producers and consumers. The competition involved a video entry, interviews and finally a selection process in Croke Park. The General Manager of the Irish Producer Group, Charles Smith, honored the team by visiting the school in person to present the trophy they also won.

In a thoughtful and generous act, the team decided to donate the proceeds of the sale of one of the animals to the Hooves4Hospice fundraising project. That money will now be invested in purchasing young animals that will be reared, free of charge, by host farmers who have offered to take part in the project. There are now close on 400 hundred animals registered in the Hooves4Hospice herd.

The project was launched in January of this year and has been remarkably successful in spite of the restrictions on promoting the project with farmers due to Covid-19.

A spokesperson for the project said: “The extraordinary generosity of the farming community towards the Hooves4Hospice project is proof, if proof were needed, of the deep-felt need there is for a Regional Hospice in our region.”