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Jimmy Kearney, Agnes Nowek, Paul Murphy and Aidan O’Connor from the Kerry Flyer, one of thousands of individuals, clubs and organisations from all over Ireland benefit from National Lottery Good Causes funding every year. Photo by Julien Behal
NATIONAL Lottery players in Kerry raised a total of €7,151,864 for good causes all over Ireland last year by participating in National Lottery games.
This news comes as Premier Lotteries Ireland, operator of the National Lottery, released its trading results for 2017 and announced a total of €226 million was raised for Good Causes in 2017 – or €620,000 a day.
This funding is making a vital impact to hundreds of individuals, clubs and organisations in Co. Kerry and throughout the rest of the country.
Among the organisations to benefit in recent years from National Lottery Good Causes funding is the Kerry Flyer transport service.
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Originally set up in November 2001 to provide community accessible transport solutions to the communities of North and East Kerry, the ‘Kerry Flyer’ company has diversified over the years to meet the changing needs of its service users.
The core of its work is community transport from its base in Castleisland but with the help National Lottery funding for Good Causes (€14,000 in 2015) it was also able to help older people in the county source home protection alarms under the Senior Alert Scheme.
Nicola Lawless, CEO of Kerry Flyer, explains: “We were able to help individuals in their applications for these alarms. For many older people in rural areas these were vital and not only provided a means to call help if they got into difficulty but provided much-needed peace of mind too.”
The alert monitoring system enabled older people to remain in their own homes.
While National Lottery good causes funding related specifically to the senior alert scheme programme, the Kerry Flyer group has undertaken many other community initiatives to great success.
The company has provided online training to over 2,500 people in Kerry who otherwise would have been removed from the IT knowledge area.
“It’s been transformative for many,” explains Nicola who adds: “There’s no way many older people in rural areas would have access to computers or the confidence to work with them. We show people, through our basic computer and internet training, how to use email and for many it offers an invaluable lifeline with family members far away.”
So much more than just a community transport service, Kerry Flyer continues to evolve and develop and in doing so will continue to serve the people of North and East Kerry.
