Charitable children near Kilkenny border reopen Egg Honesty Box

A pair of charitable siblings have reopened their honesty box thanks to the support of the local community. 

11 year-old Liam and his 10 year-old sister Sophie Ellis took the tough decision to close their roadside honesty box after it was targeted by thieves for a fourth time late last month. The LS Eggs box was located between Durrow and Cullohill.  

The children donate half the proceeds from their sales to the LauraLynn children’s charity. In two years those donations amounted to almost €3,000. 

This morning Sophie and Liam were on their way to visit the LauraLynn Hospice following an invitation from the charity. It’s understood LauraLynn wants to give them some chicks to add to their flock. 

Their mother Catriona described the past week as “a bit crazy” but said the response had been overwhelming and positive. She said LauraLynn had contacted them to say they had “lots of donations” after Liam and Sophie featured on RTE news. 

Their roadside egg enterprise had supplied eggs to the local community in a Covid friendly way during the lockdown. It proved a great success during the lockdown and aside from buying more hens, the children decided to give money back and chose LauraLynn as their preferred charity.  

However, their Honesty Box was targeted by thieves. The first theft occurred last October when money was taken and the thefts continued culminating in an incident where money and 23 boxes of eggs were stolen late last month. The final theft forced the children to close their honesty box and resulted in the incident being highlighted on RTE news.  

Catriona said there were lots of offers of help and the community rallied around them after the theft. She said the children received letters and donations by post following the news reports. 

“It was all positive out of the disappointment,” she said. 

Thanks to the support from the local community, Catriona explained that LS Eggs is now back in operation at Stanley Motors. 

“Our local petrol station said they would keep it there for us,” she explained.  

She said Tom Delahunty from Abbeyleix, who had offered to help the children after an earlier theft, had made a new money box for them.  

Catriona said the events over Easter had been surreal but enjoyable for the children who also managed to fit in a few eggs of the chocolate variety.