Enterprise Rent-A-Car recently joined RTÉ employees on its Donnybrook campus to support Shine A Light Night in aid of Focus Ireland. A team of 15 employees from Enterprise Rent-A-Car head office joined 25 RTÉ team members to mark the occasion. Shine A Light Night sees organisations, clubs and individuals from all over Ireland gather together in their communities to organise sleep outs – in their local park, place of work, town square or club grounds. The night aims to bring people together to stand in solidarity with families and individuals who are experiencing homelessness. To date, Ireland’s largest car rental company and the National broadcaster has raised a joint total of €16,000 in aid of the charity.
Since 2012, Shine A Light has raised over €3 million for people who are experiencing homelessness all over Ireland. Last year, Focus Ireland helped over 14,500 people who were either homeless or at risk and the charity relies on key fundraising events such as Shine A Light Night to keep all of its services in operation. And now, more than ever, the good work of Focus Ireland is required as the latest figures report a record total of 9,891 men, women and children who are homeless within families across the country, with children accounting for nearly 4,000 of this total.
Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said, “Focus Ireland works tirelessly with people experiencing homelessness to help them secure their home or to ensure they exit homelessness permanently. We also work extensively across the area of prevention to make sure many other families and individuals never become homeless in the first place. We rely on the support of organisations like RTÉ and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which are of great benefit to us when it comes to fundraising events like Shine A Light Night. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their generous support.”
On Friday October 12th, many more organisations, large and small, all around Ireland will bed down for one night in their communities and Enterprise Rent-A-Car and RTÉ hope to encourage more businesses to get involved. “By forgoing comfort for one night, you can help make a real and lasting difference to someone less fortunate and help to end homelessness in Ireland”, said George O’Connor, MD of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Ireland. For more information on how you can mark Shine A Light Night in your community please visit http://shinealight.focusireland.ie/
