Offaly teacher raises more than €5,000 for educational charity

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Tullamore-based teacher Bobby O'Connor has raised over €5,500 for charity with the help of Tullamore Credit Union and Tullamore Lions Club.

The Mucklagh primary school teacher raised the funds for Niall Mellon's Mellon Educate charity with his '4 Peaks in a Week' fundraiser.

The challenge saw Bobby climb the highest peak in each of Ireland's four provinces over the course of one week: Slieve Donard in Ulster, Lugnaquilla in Leinster, Carrauntoohil in Munster, and Mweelrea in Connacht.

Some €3,910 was donated on Bobby's GoFundMe page, including a €500 donation from Tullamore Lions Club. In addition, Tullamore Credit Union donated €2,000, which came from a special fund called Our World Fund.

“It made a huge difference. I was blown away because I never expected that big of a donation from any one place,” Bobby said.

He added: “I was a bit shocked by the support, because I only moved to Tullamore about two years ago. I was blown away by how generous people were.”

When asked by the Offaly Independent what made him start his fundraiser, Bobby said: “I donate once a month to charity – it's usually a friend doing a fundraiser on social media.”

Bobby said it was a fundraiser started by his friend, Pat, from Adare, that first brought his attention to the Mellon Educate charity. Upon doing more research about the charity, he was amazed by the work it carries out in Cape Town in South Africa.

“I'm a teacher, but I also renovate houses,” Bobby said. “I was amazed to see Niall Mellon had built 175,000 houses in Cape Town. (The charity is) now called Mellon Educate, and they're focused on building schools for that community of houses that they built.”

The local teacher said the charity was exactly in line with his own interests, and he knew he had to get involved. The Niall Mellon Educate mission is taking place from November 15 to 24 in Cape Town, and Bobby plans to be part of it.

“This is a 9-day building blitz with over 400 volunteers, and all the fundraising money goes towards materials. I'm a teacher, and I also have a two-year-old. I couldn't go away for a month, or something like that, but this is the perfect opportunity.

“When we land [in South Africa], we go straight to the site. There was a huge amount of organisation that goes into it. Every volunteer knows what their job is.”

The plan is to build a school which can accommodate 2,000 students who are living in the houses previously built by Niall Mellon volunteers.

When asked what the most difficult physical part of the '4 peaks' fundraiser was, Bobby said: “The tricky part was the travel. The first climb was in Down and the last one was in Kerry. I'm lucky because I'm in Tullamore, which is central.

“You think, 'it'll be summer time, it'll be sunny'. But it was lashing rain for three of the four climbs! There was a weather warning for the climb in Mayo. It was difficult, but it was also unbelievably enjoyable.”

The Limerick native was surprised to learn how well-known the Mellon Educate charity was in Ireland, noting that he met so many other contributors along the way.

“There are people in Mucklagh who have been donating for years,” he said.

“There's a man in his 60's who is going for his 19th time this year – that goes to show how important it is.”