Young Kilkenny girl organises another successful fundraiser for an incredible cause
Amelia-Rose (6) is a local girl on a fundraising mission.
Before Christmas last year, the creative and kind-hearted Kilkenny youngster spent hundreds of hours creating festive gift tags in a bid to raise funds for children’s hospitals.
She went around from door-to-door selling the tags after school, and raised hundreds of euros.
At the time, in the midst of the pandemic, it was a story that warmed local hearts.
“Amelia-Rose has always had this selfless drive to help others,” explains proud mum Theresa.
Now, Amelia-Rose has completed yet another fundraiser for another very worthy cause.
The story of how this fundraiser came to be is very personal to Amelia-Rose.
“My friend Sara got sick recently and it scared me,” she said.
“She was getting sick a lot and lost all of her hair.”
When Amelia-Rose went over to visit Sara in her house one day, she noticed that Sara had hair that she could put on in lots of different styles.
Soon after, she found out all about wigs for children from Sara’s family and her mum.
“I asked to donate my hair to make a wig, as I have a lot of hair,” Amelia-Rose said.
Amelia-Rose raised €600 in sponsorship for donating her hair.
These funds will go to LauraLynn Children’s Hospice - providing respite, home support, transitional, crisis and end-of-life care to children and their families with life-limiting conditions.
The fourteen inches of hair Amelia-Rose donated has also been sent to the Rapunzel Foundation.
The Rapunzel Foundation is a charity organisation that works to improve the lives of those living with hair loss (alopecia).
Hair is raised through the Rapunzel Foundation’s ‘ponytail campaign’, where people commit to growing their hair 14 inches or longer with the view to their hair being sent to help make much needed wigs to improve the lives of those living with the hair loss.
Amelia-Rose got her hair cut last week in Leeno Hair Design in Carlow and she wasn’t one bit nervous.
“I just wanted to thank everybody for their support,” she told the Kilkenny People.