Christmas Giving Tree campaign in Ballinalack drawing to a close this week

The Ballinalack businesspeople who have been running a Christmas Giving Tree campaign say that they are very pleased by the response so far.

"It has gone really well and we are hoping for a big push in the next few days," Colin Galligan of Hydrate Alkaline Water and Wellness Store told the Westmeath Examiner this week.

The campaign is running until December 16 and Colin hopes that there will be a big influx of gifts by the end of the week.

Speaking when the campaign was launched a few weeks ago, Colin explained the idea behind it.

“The way it works is that we are working with local organisations who help children in disadvantaged situations – so we have a list of ages and names of kids, and on the tree here we have cards, with first name and the age of a child, boy or girl.

“So people come in to the store, grab a card, go buy a gift, and bring the gift and the card back to us as soon as possible, and we distribute the gifts to the local organisations.

“People who can’t get as far as the store can contact with their information, and we’ll buy a gift on their behalf.

“We came in here in 2020, so this is our first proper year of trading, and we just want to give back to the community locally, and we feel blessed to be here and to have this opportunity.”