‘The Queen of Counting Coin!’
A Borrisokane woman is using change to bring change to the life of local girl Sophie Breen and her quest to secure surgery in the United States.
Ann Shanahan has been collecting one, two and five-cent coins for the ongoing ‘Sophie's Wish’ fundraising campaign. She says lots of people do not realise just how much money they have abandoned in change boxes and containers at home. Just last week, a man came into a local shop with coins in a container totalling €109. Another local man pulled a shoebox out from under his bed and counted coins to the value of €138.
“The amount of money lying around in people's houses is something you wouldn't believe,” Ann said. “One and two-cent coins; there's loads of it there and it could be put to good use if people would only root it out.”
She started gathering coins for charity over a year ago. A local lady asked her if she could give a few coins to the hospice. Ann gathered around €800 from the largely forgotten about or unwanted change that people gave her to painstakingly tot up.
Struck by the money-raising potential of this untapped resource, she then began collecting coins for the Marie Keating Foundation. She turned her fundraising efforts to Sophie's Wish at the start of last year in support of her Borrisokane neighbour, eight-year-old Sophie Breen, who is trying to fund treatment for cerebral palsy in the US.
Receiving various amounts at different times over the year, she had by last week raised €4,339 for Sophie's Wish. Ann keeps an exact record of who gave what and then presents the money to Sophie's mother Edel to bank.
Ann was delighted when at Christmas Sophie presented her with a gift of special acknowledgement, a drinking glass inscribed to ‘The Queen of Counting Coin’.
“It's too good an idea to let die,” Ann said of her novel venture. “There's so much of it lying around in people's houses at a time when charities are crying out for money; it's such a waste. There's so much of it that has been taken out of circulation and might never come back into circulation.”
She said she also collects old currency no longer in use and foreign coin, which she brings to Borrisokane Credit Union where a scheme has been set to support autism services. Ann spoke of plans to hold a big fundraising night for Sophie in Borrisokane last year, which unfortunately, like so many other plans, has been scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Her fundraising efforts have also suffered setbacks but she has now established several drop-off points for people to leave coins. These include Crawford's, the Country Kitchen, and PJ Heenan's in Borrisokane; JKC's in Nenagh, or to Moira Shepherd, Moneygall; Tony Treacy at Stakelums, Race Course Road, Thurles, and Mick Maher, Tipp Mid West Radio. If anyone wants to know exactly how much money they have in coins, they can leave their phone number for Ann to contact.
Ann is also inviting people to contact her by phone and she will arrange collection of coins at an outdoor location. All proceeds go to Sophie's Wish. Ann can be contacted at 085 1590785.
GOFUNDME WEBPAGE
Donations are still being gratefully accepted on the Sophie's Wish GoFundMe webpage, where just over half of the €100,000 target has been achieved.