Louisburgh girl raising funds for cousins

Ciara Galvin

AN eight-year-old Louisburgh girl is aiming to make 100 cushions in order to raise much- needed funds for her two cousins.
Emma Edmundson, a second class pupil in Louisburgh NS, set about the task of making the cushions last month in order to raise €1,000 for her cousins Mairéad and Aoibheann Mitchell. The Mitchell sisters are living with a debilitating condition called Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia.
The sisters’ mother Kathleen (nee McDonnell) is originally from Liscarney and a fundraising campaign has been set up by a committee in Westport. Money raised will go towards part funding the build of two separate purpose built homes where Mairéad and Aoibheann can live into the future.
When Emma heard about her cousins’ condition and that they needed new homes they could access easily, she decided to set her mind and talents to making cushions.
Speaking to The Mayo News about the fundraising initiative, Emma’s mother Linda said her daughter was very sympathetic to her cousins’ situation.
“We were talking about different ways to raise funds and Emma asked a good few questions about it and she knows the girls really well. She said she might make ten cushions and sell them for €10 each,” explained Linda. That figure rose to 20 cushions and soon the determined eight year-old set a target of 100 cushions.
With 60 cushions made already, Emma is still busy sewing away on her Nanny’s sewing machine as her own machine broke recently and is currently in Germany being fixed.
“She will get there, she’s very determined. She does ten at a time and I do the cutting...it’s quite time consuming.”
Emma plans to sell the cushions in local businesses, at school and to houses. She also has a lot of orders already.
Each cushion comes with a label that reads, ‘Made with love by Emma’. Linda said that Emma bought the labels on eBay and when the story was explained as to what they were for, extra labels were included free of charge. Guiney’s department store also gave Emma a discount on material when they heard about what she was doing.
“People are very good,” concluded Linda. Donations to the Mitchell Sisters’ independent living can be made directly at AIB Westport, Account: Mitchellsistersind.living, IBAN IE68AIBk93716938430070, Bic: AIBKIE2D.

MORE Mitchellsistersindependentliving Go Fund Me page on Facebook and  www.gofundme,com/mitchellsisters