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Jacinta Bradley (right) of Recovery Haven with volunteers who will be taking a skydive for in aid of the facility. In front is Paddy Kevane and Jack Clapham. Second row; Lauren Fitzell, Tom Broderick, Nora Nagle. Third row; Marie O’Sullivan, Stephanie Horan, Michelle Ward. At back; Noreen O’Neill, Josephine Sheehan, Pat Clapham and John Parker. Photo by Dermot Crean
CLOSE to 90 brave volunteers will be taking a leap of faith for cancer support charity Recovery Haven Kerry over the next two weekends as they take to the skies for a fundraising parachute jump.
The charity has been completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for their inaugural skydive event, which was initially supposed to take place on leap year day, February 29th, but was extended to three days due to phenomenal demand.
A total of 87 people from across Kerry and further afield have signed up to take part in the skydive extravaganza at the Irish Parachute Club in Edenderry over three days – this Saturday and Sunday, February 29th and March 1st, and the following Saturday, March 7th.
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PR & Marketing officer with Recovery Haven, Marisa Reidy, explained that the initial idea was to put out a call for volunteers to take part in the charity’s first ever ‘Leap for Recovery’ event on February 29th to tie in with the leap year – but when three times more people asked to sign up as could be catered for, it was decided to accommodate everyone.
“We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2020, which is a leap year, so we decided to organise a skydive on that day. The Irish Parachute Club can accommodate 30 people each day so we were hoping we could get enough to fill that day. Little did we realise that we would be inundated with requests to take part and in the end we have filled three full days.”
Marisa said that those taking part are doing so for a number of personal reasons, from simply ticking a skydive off their bucket list, to giving something back for the support their families or friends received from Recovery Haven, to doing it in memory of someone they have lost.
“It is shaping up to be Recovery Haven’s biggest ever fundraisers to date and we cannot thank everyone enough for signing up, as well as their sponsors and supporters for their overwhelming generosity. We’ve been blown away by the sponsorship we’re seeing,” she said. “Now all we need to do is pray the weather Gods give us the same support.”
