“The profession should be very proud,” said newly-appointed president of the Law Society, Patrick Dorgan, as he handed over two cheques for €150,000 each to the Peter McVerry Trust and the Hope Foundation at an event hosted by William Fry this week.
“There was an ambitious target set to make the 20thanniversary of the Calcutta Run this year extra special,” he said .
A target of €300,000 for 2018 was set, which would bring the money raised by the Calcutta Run to an overall total of €4M over its twenty years.
The legal firms rose to the challenge, Patrick Dorgan said, in terms of the number of participants in both the run and the cycle, in encouraging their staff to raise sponsorship and in terms of the generosity of their own contributions.
“The profession’s uniting behind this event is what makes it one of the most successful corporate fundraising and CSR events in the country,” the Law Society president said at the cheque handover on Wednesday 21 November.
200 firms
In May, close to 1,400 members of law firms ran, walked or cycled the event with almost 200 law firms across the country represented.
There were events in Dublin, Cork, Calcutta and New York. The Cork event, in its inaugural year, was spectacularly successful with close to 200 people participating and raising €10K for Hope Foundation and Share.
But the event is much more than a one-day occasion as there are fundraising efforts in many firms and sponsorship-raising events, as well as soccer and tennis tournaments and much more.
Challenge
As he handed over the cheques, Patrick Dorgan spoke about the huge challenge of combatting homelessness in this country and remarked that it was both a source of comfort and discomfort to realise that over the 20 years of the Calcutta Run the situation had improved significantly in Calcutta but in Ireland, in terms of homelessness, things had never been so bad.
On behalf of the Peter McVerry Trust, Pat Doyle thanked the profession for their longstanding commitment to them and described how the Calcutta Run money is used to support their clients who are taken directly off the streets.
Charlotte Nagle on behalf of the Hope Foundation emphasised that as a small charity the Calcutta Run contribution is immensely important to Hope.
Graditude
She expressed gratitude on behalf of all of the Hope workers and clients in the three projects in Calcutta that are funded through the run.
The Calcutta Run and cycle date for 2019 was also announced as Saturday 18th May.