National Lottery Volunteer day sees staff give a day to ALONE

National Lottery Volunteer Day at ALONE

Employees from the National Lottery decamped from their Abbey Street, Dublin headquarters on Friday 1st September for the company's first ever Volunteer Day.

Staff swapped their normal day jobs for paint brushes and trowels to garden and paint for the charity, ALONE, which is making a difference to the lives of hundreds of older people all over Ireland who are homeless, socially isolated, living in deprivation or in crisis.

As well as provides homes to older people who are homeless or at risk ALONE helps link them with the relevant services in the community. The organisation also run Befriending Campaigns and advocates for change for older people.

The 16-strong team, from Premier Lotteries Ireland, operator of the National Lottery, set off to ALONE’s premises for older people at Willie Bermingham Place in Kilmainham, Dublin 8. This residential housing complex comprises of 38 housing units.

After a pep talk from Mireya Gines, Fundraising Assistant for ALONE, where she detailed the fantastic work ALONE does in the community, the volunteers got to work on gardening tasks and even got their hands dirty by doing some painting to freshen up the complex for its residents.  

Mireya Gines, of ALONE said: “We are delighted that ALONE is the first organisation to benefit from the National Lottery Volunteer Days. We have benefitted from Lottery funding in the past but nothing beats the personal touch of getting an army of volunteers who worked really hard and the place is looking really well now. A few of our residents also commented that it was nice to chat with the visitors over the course of the afternoon.”

Good Causes benefit from the sale of all National Lottery games

To date the National Lottery has raised over €5.5 billion for good causes. This level of funding has made a significant difference to communities, projects and individuals in the areas of Youth, Sports, Recreation, Amenities, Health, Welfare, Arts, Culture, National Heritage and the Irish Language.