Together for Hospice, The National Hospice Movement, is delighted to announce that Hospice Sunflower Days is returning for its 34th year this June and as part of this year’s campaign they are calling on schools, pre-schools, Montessori’s and creches throughout the country to take part and host their own Hospice Sunflower Fun Day to help raise vital funds for their local hospice or homecare service.
To launch the new initiative Hospice Sunflower Days Ambassador, Maia Dunphy, enjoyed a fun morning at her son Tom’s school, St. Christopher’s Primary School, Ballsbridge for the very first Hospice Sunflower Fun Day. Maia, and all at St. Christopher’s, are encouraging other schools, pre-schools, Montessori’s and creches across the country to get involved by hosting their own Hospice Sunflower Fun Day this June to raise vital funds for their local hospice service.
Participating schools, pre-schools, Montessori’s and creches will pick a date in June to host a Hospice Sunflower Fun Day inviting their students to wear something yellow and asking families to make a €2 donation, or whatever they can afford, with all funds raised going directly to their local hospice or homecare service. As a thank you for taking part in the initiative, schools, pre-schools, Montessori’s and creches will be provided with a Hospice Sunflower Fun Day pack which will include resources for the day, sunflower seeds for the children to plant, some helpful planting tips as well as fun sunflower themed colouring pages to enjoy!
Hospices nationwide need to raise approximately €20 million each year to provide their patient centred care and as our population ages, demand for specialist hospice and palliative homecare services continues to grow. In 2023 alone, Hospice services across Ireland cared for over 18,350 patients and their families, a 6% increase on 2022 figures, and made over 87,000 specialist palliative homecare visits to patient's homes, a 2% increase on 2022 figures.
Together for Hospice coordinates the national Hospice Sunflower Days campaign and all funds raised play a vital role in supporting hospices to continue caring for patients and their families nationwide, with every euro raised locally, staying locally. The funds raised allow hospices to innovate, build new facilities, develop new services, and deliver quality improvements and extra benefits for their patients and their family members.
Together for Hospice represents 26 Hospice and specialist palliative home care providers across Ireland and exists to bring Ireland’s hospice sector together so that everyone in every community has access to exceptional care.
For further information on how your school, pre-school, Montessori or creche can register to take part and host a Hospice Sunflower Fun Day this June simply log onto www.sunflowerdays.ie
You can also help your local hospice or homecare service by supporting Hospice Sunflower Days on-street collections that will taking place on Friday, 7th and Saturday, 8th June 2024.
