Christmas FM to partner with Barnardo's Children's charity
Christmas FM, the popular radio station that is seen by many as the official soundtrack to the festive season, has chosen Barnardos, Ireland’s leading children’s charity, as their official charity partner for 2021.
Christmas FM is aiming to raise over €250,000 which will go directly towards Barnardos’ mission of working to give vulnerable children living in disadvantaged communities a better chance.
Listener donations raised for Barnardos will be used to provide targeted and intensive support for over 5,000 children most in need – providing nutritious food, support with education, and therapeutic services with their trained support teams.
Barnardos is a trauma informed organisation working directly with about 18,000 children and their families every year across its 45 projects. Their aim is to deliver services and work with families, communities, and partners to transform the lives of vulnerable children who are affected by adverse childhood experiences.
Christmas FM will be celebrating its 14th year on air this year when it launches on FM in November and, since it began broadcasting, has raised over €2.7 million for a range of charities.
Garvan Rigby, co-founder of Christmas FM, said that the children that Barnardos work with will have felt huge pressures over the past 18 months due to the "most unprecedented era of our lifetime" with the coronavirus pandemic.
"Barnardos is a very special organisation who, now more than ever, need our help and we are delighted to be partnering with them for Christmas this year. Christmas FM creates a feel-good festive factor and brings people together when they’ve been apart for so long while broadcasting a unique and unrivalled service."
Suzanne Connolly, CEO of Barnardos, said the charity partnership with Christmas FM will help them to ": “share more about the impact of our work and raise vital funds to help us continue supporting children most in need.
Barnardos’ mission is to deliver services and work with families, communities, and its partners to transform the lives of vulnerable children who are affected by adverse childhood experiences such as abuse, parental mental health, neglect, family separation or bereavement. Because childhood lasts a lifetime.
Christmas FM plays round-the-clock Christmas tunes, spreading an abundance of festive cheer and seasonal goodwill every single day in the run up to Christmas. Broadcasting almost nationwide, Christmas FM is listened to by nearly one in three adults. The costs of running Christmas FM are covered by various sponsors, ensuring listener donations go directly to the charity partner. The station is run each year by a core management team, assisted by more than 100 volunteers who devote hundreds of hours of their time