Clubs rewarded from Fibs for Phones challenge

Clubs rewarded from Fibs for Phones challenge


Clubs from all over Mayo and beyond received a defibrillator after fundraising initiative

Edwin McGreal
Swinford

FIFTY-ONE organisations from Mayo and a little further afield collected their certificates last Thursday in Swinford after they successfully completed the Fibs for Phones challenge run by C & C Cellular in conjunction with Mid West Radio.
The idea was simple - collect 500 old mobile phones and your club would be guaranteed a defibrillator. The response was phenomenal and 51 sporting clubs, community organisations and schools will soon have a defibrillator and at least six trained users to call on.
The idea was the brainchild of Brendan Chambers, owner of C & C Cellular. For the past three years he had been asking people to donate old phones and he in turn would find a market for recycling them.
The first year of this initiative saw Brendan and his wife Julie set a target of €10,000. They raised €30,000. With that they set the bar for the second year at €60,000 and ended up raising €81,000.
This year’s Charity Ball figure isn’t finalised yet and Chambers doesn’t want to reveal it before the night, August 22, in any case. But he says it will be ‘unbelievable’.
The huge surge this year is mainly down to the evolvement of the fundraising effort to the Fibs for Phones initiative.
Last October Evelyn Horan from the Westport Active Retirement Group came to Chambers and asked for ‘a few pound’ because they were collecting to get a defibrillator.
Chambers said he wouldn’t give money but that if the group went out and collected old mobile phones, he would buy the defibrillator. They did so with ease and Chambers had his eureka moment.
Tommy Marren and Viv Brennan from Mid West Radio were brought on board and the push started. Last Thursday night in the Gateway Hotel in Swinford was far from the end of the road either, merely a significant marker.
“This hasn’t finished,” Brendan Chambers said. “The word is spreading. I’m been in contact with people in Cavan, in Dundalk, in Donegal, in Waterford. I want this to go nationwide.”
Clubs and organisation from every corner of Mayo and beyond were in Swinford to accept their certificates. The return for them was what made it so easy for them to get out and collect phones.
“It was started in Westport as something to give the entire community an incentive to collect for something of value to the entire community,” added Mid West Radio Managing Director Paul Claffey. “It has been an unbelievable success, to bring lifesaving equipment to so many communities. If even one life is saved it will be worth it. Fibs for Phones shows that volunteerism is alive and well in Ireland.”
The next step is the Charity Ball, fixed for Breaffy House Hotel on August 22. Chambers told those present in Swinford that the scheme has, thus far, kept the size and weight of three family size cars out of Mayo landfills.
And clubs have a vital piece of lifesaving equipment at their disposal.
“I hope none of the groups ever have to use the defibrillator but it is unbelievable the amount of times a defibrillator has had to be used in Connacht. It is saving people’s lives.”