.
Ruth Falvey (left) and Helen Mackessy meet in town on Thursday.
COMMUNITY SPIRIT is alive and well here in town after a group of local people rallied together to help a woman and her mother after they lost a sum of money in town.
Helen Mackessy from Basin Road is one of the women at the centre of this story, after she lost €200 that she had been given by her elderly mother, of whom Helen is a full time carer.
After making a public appeal for any knowledge of the money’s whereabouts on the popular ‘Tralee Do You Know?’ Facebook page, she received a message claiming it had been found.
Continued below…
.
But this, in the end, turned out to be a hoax, much to the distress of Helen and her mother.
“I was clearing out an old bench from my mum’s and I had loads of other appointments that day aswell so I was flustered,” said Helen talking to TraleeToday.ie on Thursday.
“My mom gave me the money [for errands and bills] and I stuffed the four €50 notes down into the back of my jeans,” she continued.
“I got to Counihan’s across from the Brandon Hotel and I hadn’t at that stage paid her bills or any of her errands. Then when I couldn’t find the money. I ran out to the car, no money there though,” she continued.
Continued below…
The fundraising page which was set up by Ruth Falvey to help Helen get her €200.
“I was really upset and I told my mum not to worry and that it was my fault and that I would cover it. I went on the ‘do you know page’ then and asked if people could keep an eye out for it. It was a big notice on the page asking if people could help me find it and I got loads of good messages wishing me luck,” she said.
“At about two or three in the morning, I started getting messages saying that my money had been found. A gentleman had put up something saying that a friend of a friend had found four €50 notes notes in town and that it must be mine. We were all happy after this, I woke mum up and we had tea and cake and we were delighted,” she continued.
“Then about two hours later, it turned out all to be a hoax. It was very upsetting, very angering and just very disappointing,” she said.
Enter Cahermoneen’s Ruth Falvey, founder and administrator of the ‘Tralee Do You Know?’ page, who decided to set up a ‘GoFundMe’ community fundraising page to try and reimburse Helen with the €200.
“I just said I’d set up a ‘GoFundMe’ page and we’ll get her the €200 back in no time. With 4,000 members on the page, surely we were going to €200 back,” said Ruth.
“Next thing the donations just started rolling in. It was six o clock when I set up the page and by 11 o’clock we had all the money raised. It was fantastic, just being able to see all these people popping in with all the little donations,” Ruth said.
So a happy ending for Helen and her mum.
“My mum is happier now since before the money was lost, just because of the great community spirit that was shown. We would have managed the money ourselves, it’s just that people got angry after the hoax message and wanted to help. They were all so nice,” Helen said, thanking Ruth and everyone who donated for their generosity.
