Generosity to Mac & Norman 2020 'brilliant'
 |
| Scenes from the mini-rally. |
The generosity which allowed the recent total of €12,000 to be transferred to the Irish Cancer Society by the Mac and Norman Vintage Rally has been described as 'brilliant' by Trish Sully of the organising committee, writes Brian Byrne.
With the normal rally in August dropped because of the coronavirus restrictions, the organisers weren't expecting anything like that figure this year from donations and sponsorship cards.
"We originally had a total of €8,900, with donations still coming in," Trish told the Diary yesterday. "People were dropping contributions in to my mother at home, or meeting my father in the street and handing him money, saying 'put this in for the Irish Cancer Society'."
Without the input from supporters around the country to the rally, which would have been in its 18th year, the fundraiser became very much a local collection. "A few weeks ago we had reached €10,000 and then someone brought in another load of sponsorship cards, and then we reached the €12,000. That brought the total raised over the 18 years to more than half a million."
The call for the provision of video'd 'virtual' rallies from around the country didn't work out, and there will be only two uploaded to the site. "We did our own short one, and Joanne O'Sullivan organised one in Newbridge with children, so Colin Lambe will be putting those two together soon."
A JustGiving appeal also failed to gain any traction, but in the end it didn't matter, there was a really great community contribution.
"Next year I hope it will be back to normal and we can have our usual day out," Trish says. "Just to see the faces, that's what we miss, everybody meeting up and having a chat."
