Local volunteers up for national awards
A ten-year-old homelessness activist from Edenderry and a food poverty campaigner turned county councillor have been shortlisted for the 2019 Volunteer Ireland Awards.
Lexie Delaney is in the running for the Campaigning and Awareness Raising Award. For the last four years Lexie has been the helping the homeless and has raised thousands of euros to purchase supplies for groups to hand out on soup runs.
Her life as an activist began at the young age of seven when she saw a homeless boy on Grafton Street. Since then she has volunteered with a number of homeless charities such as Dublin Homeless Awareness and Feed Our Homeless, as well as the Ken Smollen Food Appeal.
During the summer she raised over €3,000 and she recently launched an appeal for Christmas presents for children who will spend Christmas in temporary accommodation.
Her proud mother Lillian says that Lexie is constantly thinking about ways to help the homeless.
“She doesn't stop, she has me wrecked,” Lillian laughed. “She has 150 presents so far and has 60 selection boxes. My house is like a warehouse at the minute. Every year we do this. She hasn't even got her school (Scoil Bhríde) involved yet, I can't imagine the amount of stuff we will have by the first week in December.
Last October Lexie received the young Fundraiser of the Year Award at The Woman's Way Awards and in February of this year she was honoured by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Niall Ring for her work with the homeless.
Cllr Ken Smollen, the founder of one of the organisations that Lexie works with, has also been nominated for an award. The food poverty activist, whose organisation provides food to almost 700 households across the midlands, has been shortlisted in the Community category.
Cllr Smollen decided to establish the Ken Smollen Food Appeal after getting a glimpse at the number of local families experiencing food poverty.
“The reason that I initially got involved in getting food to families in their homes was by attending Repossession Courts in Tullamore and many similar courts throughout the country to support families threatened with losing their homes. It was then that I discovered that many families were going without adequate amounts of food in order that they could pay as much as possible towards their mortgage repayments. I then discovered that some were going to Dublin and the larger centres to queue up for food. We then decided to come back to Offaly and the other Midlands counties as I was aware that many people couldn’t make it to the larger centres to get food.”
While he admits that it's “nice to be recognised”, Cllr Smollen said that the work he does wouldn't be possible with the “fantastic support of people, businesses and organisations” who donate the food that he delivers.
“This is all about them. It's not about me.”