Remembrance Tree volunteers on duty from this weekend
The volunteers who endure the wind, rain and cold at the annual Rotary Club Mullingar and North Westmeath Hospice Remembrance Tree have somewhere warmer to shelter this year.
The groups launched the 2025 fundraiser yesterday, Friday, at their traditional spot on Dominick Square, with support from Westmeath County Council, Mullingar Chamber and Faulkner Sheds, who have made a modern, well insulated, mobile hut and donated it to them.
The Remembrance Tree fundraiser is now in its 17th year and it opens today Saturday December 7, returns tomorrow Sunday December 8, and then runs straight through from Saturday December 14 to Tuesday December 24.
The public are invited to place remembering cards for loved ones in a box beside the tree - a new system that has changed from the previous arrangements, which involved placing ribbons on the tree.
People can make donations using cash or cards. A Remembering Mass and service will be offered in local places of worship for all names on the cards, and times and dates of those will be on display at the hut.
Members of Mullingar Rotary Club and the North Westmeath Hospice CLG will be at the new Christmas tree, donated by the National Science Park, and the new hut sponsored by Faulkner Sheds.
Denis Larkin, Mullingar Rotary Club president, says funds raised will go towards local charities, and Margaret Claffey, chairperson of North Westmeath Hospice CLG, says their share of the funds will be donated locally to the Hospice Specialist Palliative Service.
“We invite all members of the public to visit the tree and remember loved ones. The Rotary Club Mullingar and the North Westmeath Hospice CLG would like to wish everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas and new year.”
Representing Faulkner Sheds at the launch on Friday were William and Darragh Faulkner and Jenny McGrath.
Jenny explained that Teresa and Bill Collentine, on behalf of North Westmeath Hospice and the Rotary Club Mullingar respectively approached Faulkner Sheds to see if they would support the fundraiser, and they were delighted to do so.
The sturdy new mobile hut that resulted is a joint collaboration between the two charities and the company, and Darragh explained the work that went into it. “We came up with the design - so it’s all made of steel, and there’s insulation on the inside of the steel; then we put sheets of plywood up, to insulate it a bit more, and then built the chassis and the axles, and bolted it all together.”
Darragh said the unit is a fully functional trailer, and is properly road legal. The two charities will retain it for use in future years at other events as well as the annual Remembrance Tree.
Coralstown-based Faulkner Sheds operate with a core team of four, William, Darragh, Jenny, and Brian McCarthy, who was busy in the workshop on Friday. They will mark 25 years in business in 2025.
Also present at the launch were Pat Kavanagh, district engineer, Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District, who, on behalf of the council, thanked the National Science Park for donating the tree, and said they are delighted to be involved, working with Mullingar Chamber and the two charities. Fran Aldritt, chamber chief executive, was also there to lend her support.