For the second year running, the Wear Red campaign initiated by North London Structures & Groundworks has been a huge success. The Lighthouse Club were proud to be one of the charities chosen to receive donations and received a whopping £11,318 to help construction families in crisis.
The Wear Red initiative was created by Frank Hughes, MD of NLSG and FTH, and was initially set up to focus on supporting children’s charities. The fundraising activity saw sites across the country wearing red high vis jackets, hats and t shirts on and around Valentines day to raise awareness of the campaign and raise much needed funds.
Frank created the initiative as a result of a personal experience. In 2018, his son Eoghan was admitted to The Heart Centre in Crumlin Children’s Hospital, Dublin where he underwent open heart surgery at 4 months old.
Frank says “ The incredibly kind and specialist staff at Crumlin Children’s Hospital will be remembered as nothing short of heroes by myself and my wife, Fiona. Beyond the healthcare workers, we are also so grateful to my network, who showed their support and kindness during this time. Extending that support to our fellow construction families and working with the Lighthouse Club was an easy choice for us”.
Inspired by this support Frank wanted to give something back and started #wearredforchildren last year. This year because of the obvious association with construction, he also wanted to ensure that families in construction were supported too. Friend and associate, Dermot O’Grady of Ardent Tide was also in Crumlin receiving specialist help as a child as he had three kidneys.
Dermot said. “It wasn’t much fun fixing things then but In later life this was to prove invaluable for networking! We also work directly with construction companies and wanted to ensure that we reached them too. It is important to appreciate what we have and to give to those in need where we can and so we are truly grateful for the huge amount of support we received!.
The campaign raised a total of £31697 and was shared between five incredible charities including the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity (33%), Crumlin Children’s Heart Centre (33%), Mercy University Hospital (11%), Cork University Hospital (11%) and Make a Wish Foundation (12%).
Thank you to everyone that took part and donated!
