Ten years ago, when Newry philanthropist Ernie Campbell first set out to raise funds for the most vulnerable in his community, he would never have thought that his efforts would see over £400,000 raised.
The work he does is all about “granting wishes”. Taking place mostly in and around the Christmas period, Ernie and his father, Mickey set a target of £20k each year with the aim of buying 1,000 toys for children and families within the care system and providing approximately 100 families with turkey and ham for Christmas dinners.
Their outreach work also extends beyond Christmas support with the provision of hundreds of sleeping bags to keep Ireland’s homeless population warm in the coldest winter months, and this sees Ernie and his team venture beyond Newry, making multiple trips to both Dublin and Belfast to provide support.
While all the work is rewarding, one of the highlights of what they do is in their work with the Make A Wish Foundation, which seeks to make terminally ill children’s biggest dreams a reality.
For the last two consecutive years Banbridge online-fitness guru, Sean Casey has generously provided two £10,000 donations, the first of which Ernie said could help make a least three children’s “dying wishes come true” in 2025.
Having just completed their most recent effort, Ernie decided to take stock of their fundraising so far. His calculations blew that initial yearly £20,000 target well out of the water, with the nine year total coming in at a whopping £419,190.21… working out at a very healthy average of £46,576.69 per year.
To all those who helped make it happen, Ernie said alongside an announcement of the total on social media: “This is what has been achieved by EVERYONE’S donations, whether it be cash, toys etc.
“It’s YOU that make the appeals successful. It’s YOU that grant the wishes of kids who are terminally ill or that have been through hard times with the likes of cancer etc. It’s YOU that put sleeping bags and tents on the streets for our homeless.
“I CANT THANK YOUS ALL ENOUGH. We are going into the new year stronger than any year with money to buy a lot more tents and sleeping bags and granting more wishes.”
Providing an insight into the work they do with the homeless population across Ireland – a topic Ernie finds extremely emotive – he added: “In the last four years we have put 756 tents and 2904 sleeping bags on the streets of Newry, Belfast and Dublin.
“In the last two years alone we have supplied 682 sleeping bags at a cost of £5462.23 and 412 tents costing £5032.14.
“Those numbers don’t include underwear, socks, toiletries etc. That’s just our donations, which only scratches the surface of the problem.”
Regarding the situation as a “serious government failing”, he explained: “Our own people are freezing, starving, scared, depressed, addicted on the streets.
“There’s no homes for them but plenty for others; this is a serious government failing which has stretched back for decades with new numbers of over 16,000 homeless of which over 5,000 are children.”
Ernie continues to provide for the increasing numbers of those in need, while he hopes those in power work on better, longer term solutions.
