Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Sunday Business Post Write up
Our new web startup Popdeem.com got a write up on the Sunday Business Post today! Check it out here!
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Working with the LauraLynn House and Developing 100Minds.ie
Below I've wrote about my work this semester with Q-soc and the LauraLynn house whose mission is to "Put Life into a Child's Day, not Days into a Child's life." Also talk briefly about a new charity model I'm working on 100Minds.ie: aimed at proactive students!
The LauraLynn Children’s hospice foundation was setup in 2001 as a result of the enormous personal tragedy of Jane and Brendan McKenna which saw them lose both their precious daughters Laura and Lynn, inthe space of just two years. I’m proudto have used my influence on the UCD Quinn society committee this year to showthe other Q-soc members the great work this hospice does on a day to day basisand the impact and difference it makes to children suffering from life limiting conditions and also to their families. This year’s UCD Q-Soc Apprentice Competition was proudly in association with the LauraLynn house and thanks to the greatwork of the Society and its Auditor we we’re able to raise €750 to help further the amazing work that this organisation carries out.
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| Presenting Susan in the LauraLynn House with the UCD Q-Soc donation (Aware I look like a giant haha) |
The LauraLynn Children’s hospice foundation was setup in 2001 as a result of the enormous personal tragedy of Jane and Brendan McKenna which saw them lose both their precious daughters Laura and Lynn, inthe space of just two years. I’m proudto have used my influence on the UCD Quinn society committee this year to showthe other Q-soc members the great work this hospice does on a day to day basisand the impact and difference it makes to children suffering from life limiting conditions and also to their families. This year’s UCD Q-Soc Apprentice Competition was proudly in association with the LauraLynn house and thanks to the greatwork of the Society and its Auditor we we’re able to raise €750 to help further the amazing work that this organisation carries out.
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| Myself and RTE Dragon Niall O'Farrell on the night of the UCD Apprentice. |
The aim of the LauraLynn house is toestablish a children’s hospice to provide care for children who have life limiting conditions or illnesses, and for whom curative treatment is not possible.It is a tragic reality for a family to face the realisation of their child/children not reaching adulthood. The LauraLynn house aims to alleviate some of the painand suffering.
The hospice, which officially opened in September2011 has already reached and touched the lives of over 300 children and their families. It has 8 bedrooms with en-suite accommodation, and comfortable livingareas just like a large bungalow. The great thing about the LauraLynn house is thatit also caters for the families of the child, it has family apartments on location where Mothers, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters can come and stay and benear their child, especially when a child is being cared for at end of life.The hospice was built and designed to enhance the care and comfort of thechild. Other facilities include a family room, a quiet room, music and playrooms, outdoor water features, a quiet garden and a multi-sensory room.
The hospice, which officially opened in September2011 has already reached and touched the lives of over 300 children and their families. It has 8 bedrooms with en-suite accommodation, and comfortable livingareas just like a large bungalow. The great thing about the LauraLynn house is thatit also caters for the families of the child, it has family apartments on location where Mothers, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters can come and stay and benear their child, especially when a child is being cared for at end of life.The hospice was built and designed to enhance the care and comfort of thechild. Other facilities include a family room, a quiet room, music and playrooms, outdoor water features, a quiet garden and a multi-sensory room.
The LauraLynnHouse helps to:
- Enhance End-of-lifeservices to children with life-limiting conditions.
- Providefamily accommodation
- Provide practicaland emotional support to those caring for a sick child.
- Respite care, not only for the sick child, but for the family and siblings.
- Givingfamilies choices: To stay and share the care of their child. Be there as a family, or leave the child in respite care and take a break away, knowing theirchild will have the same loving care as they themselves give. Spend more time with the other children in the family, who are often left out and choice whenthe end sadly comes
After working with Susan in fundraising at the LauraLynn over the course of the semester, I came up with a new idea to further help raise money for this incredible organisation! I recently took up the module "Service Learning" for semseter 2 which involves working hands on alongside national charities to help them reach objectives such as setting up a social media presence and strategy, attracting new potential members and even setting up entire fundraising events. There are some great charities on board such as the Make a Wish Foundation and the DSPCA. Thankfully the Lecturer has allowed me to use the module time to develop my idea and try and gain some traction with testing and research. My idea which I've outlined below is a website and movement called 100minds.ie:
100Minds will aim to make a real impact by focusing on one social problem in the Irish communityand concentrating all participant efforts on that problem to raise money. The programme itself will consist of 100 students from a wide range of Academic disciplines e.g. Medicine, Business, Science, and Engineering. The 100 students involved will have to raise €1,000 each by thinking up creative fund raising ideas and testing their social entrepreneurial skills.Theoverall goal is to raise €100,000 that can be given to a specific cause/charity or hospice. The entire projects is made by students for studentsand so will aim to have the top graduate recruiters as sponsors. This will encourage proactive job seeking college students to get involved with the project and view it as an opportunity to gain exposure to one of the sponsor companies graduate programmes/internships, for example PWC/KerryGroup would be ideal sponsors.
The website for 100Minds will play a big part: Students will apply on thewebsite to become part of the project by sending in their CV and a 1 page proposal outlining how they intend to raise the €1,000. Once the money has been raised and donated to the cause- each student participant will be given a log into the website where they can access their own personalised profile, where theycan outline the challenges they faced, how they overcame them and overall what skills they learned from the process (They can also include pic’s and videos ofwhatever events they organised/ groundwork done). So the website and personal profile page will validate each of the individual student’s efforts and serve them in their job hunt as more frequently recruiters will look to Google search/LinkedIn and Social Networking sites when analysing potential candidates.
The great thing about this isthat it’s really a win-win for all involved. The student raising the money is getting great value from the process, they’re getting involved, they’re part of making a real difference and they get great exposure on the website with theirprofile that’s validated with great Company sponsors. The charity receiving the donation (Which if we bring this to implementation will be LauraLynn!) is receiving a sizeable amount of cash that can really impact on their work, and of course and most importantly, the recipient’s lives are directly improved as a result.
If anyone reading this is doing a masters next year and would like to get involved, email me: Declan.Egan@ucdconnect.ie
If anyone reading this is doing a masters next year and would like to get involved, email me: Declan.Egan@ucdconnect.ie
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