Louise Adams, John Ross Reilly and Mary Derwin from Marks & Spencer’s Mary Street branch have been nominated for the Fundraising Award at the annual Pride of M&S Awards.
The award recognises those who have gone the extra mile to help their local community and made a real impact to the lives of those around them.
Louise, John Ross and Mary – section managers at the Mary Street store – were nominated for their continued support of the Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) charity.
With the Mary Street store located in the heart of the city, homelessness is a cause close to the hearts of the team and its customers, making ICHH a natural choice for the store to support.
The team managed to raise an incredible €15,000, which allowed the charity to buy a larger van to extend its support to help people outside the greater Dublin area.
When ‘the Beast from the East’ storm hit earlier this year, the team provided thermals and food to the charity, which allowed them to help people exposed to these conditions.
Store employees continue to go out at night to volunteer with ICHH and it remains the store’s nominated local charity.
Speaking on behalf of the M&S Mary Street nominees, John Ross said: “Every day we experience first-hand the ever-growing homeless crisis as we pass people affected by homelessness on our way to work.
“As one of the original members involved in setting up ICHH, I was delighted my colleagues were happy to support the charity and, we believe that lots of people doing whatever they can, big or small, can collectively have a huge impact.”
Anthony Flynn, chief executive of ICHH, said: “We are very lucky to have partnered up with M&S over the past 12 months.
“The Mary Street team always go the extra mile for any fundraising event they hold for us and as a voluntary charity we are reliant on the huge support we get from them.”
The awards ceremony will take place on October 4 in London. To vote for the Mary Street store, take a look here.
