Local school girls raise €2,000 from cake sale for earthquake survivors

FOUR local school girls have raised over €2,000 from a cake sale for survivors of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

The nine-year-old bakers – Cara Maguire, Ellie Mannix, Lucy Byrne and Isabelle Maramotti – are the pride of Navan Road, Dublin 7 after the hugely successful fundraiser at Villa Park Gardens.

“We really wanted to help after the earthquakes happened,” said Ellie Mannix, who praised their class and school at Mary Help of Christian’s GNS, Navan Road, and all their friends, families and neighbours for their support.

Third class students Cara Maguire, Ellie Mannix, Lucy Byrne and Isabelle Maramotti of Villa Park Gardens, Ashtown, raised over €2,000 in just over two hours from their cake sale.

The third class students presented the cheque for €2,007 to Irish humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide, who are continuing to respond to the crisis.

“This is an amazing donation that will have a huge impact. These young girls are incredibly inspiring and it was fantastic that their entire community got so involved,” said Concern’s community fundraising manager, Joanne Arnold.

Ellie’s mother Nicola Battigan said everyone is very proud of the girls and their friends for their efforts to help with such a worthy cause.

“The help the girls had was phenomenal and included lots of cakes donated to them by their school friends and our local bakery Mad Brothers,” said the proud mother.

“Soon after the earthquakes happened, the girls just decided they wanted to do something to help. It was incredible to see it.

“They decided to do a cake sale and they discussed and planned it amongst themselves, their friends in their class and with their teacher.

“We all then got involved: parents, families, neighbours, with phenomenal support from local sports clubs like St. Oliver Plunkett’s Eoghan Ruadh GAA and Coolmine Rugby Club and the pupils and staff at Mary Help of Christian’s school.

“The girls designed and printed posters and leaflets and distributed them around the area and hung them up in shops. We spread news of the fundraiser on WhatsApp groups and through word of mouth.

“There was a lot of busy kitchens in the days before the sale itself and so many people donated cakes and pastries – and we owe a massive thanks to the Mad Brothers bakery in Dublin 7.”

Everyone is very proud of the girls and their friends for their efforts to help with such a worthy cause.

Nicola said the sale itself lasted for two hours in the middle of a local green field in front of their homes, which she said turned into a great community gathering.

“There was a lot of standing around and chatting and just a great vibe,” she said.

“We even had visitors from Cavan who brought cakes for us to sell. The girls loved it and we were all blown away with how well it went.

“We are delighted to have raised such a large amount for the people effected by the earthquakes.”

Over 50,000 people died in Turkey and Syria after a series of powerful earthquakes struck in February.

The earthquakes destroyed tens of thousands of buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.