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The Crann Centre, a charity providing support for adults, children and families living with neuro-physical disabilities, brought a weekend of festive cheer to their community last Friday and Saturday as they hosted an accessible Christmas Experience at their centre.
A team of Crann Centre staff and volunteers from BioMarin and VelocityEHS decorated the accessible playground and reception area at the facility in Ovens, Co Cork. Elves from Talos Limited were brought in to help wrap presents for Santa who arrived at his grotto for an extra special visit.
50 families from around Munster were greeted by the team of elves upon their arrival and were brought to a magical wonderland which included Christmas cookie making, design your own tree decoration, face painting and a stop at Santa’s grotto.
Kaelyn Murphy from Carrigaline is one of the children availing of the services at the Crann Centre. The four-year-old girl has Spina Bifida and she and her family have been accessing health, psychological wellbeing and mobility supports at Crann. They were the first family to arrive on Friday and Kaelyn was given the honour of turning on the Christmas lights in reception.
Crann’s Chief Executive Padraig Mallon said:
“Christmas at Crann is a wonderful event that we’ve been fortunate to put on for the last three years. Our staff have been assisted by a fantastic group of volunteers to create a Christmas experience that is easy to access in a comfortable environment. One of the key issues that continuously comes through from families of children with disabilities and from people with disabilities themselves is social isolation so we want to give people the opportunity to be together at Christmas. This has been a great team event for our staff that’s a culmination of a lot of work and we have received great support from businesses both locally and nationally and I’d like to thank everyone for making this event possible.”
Christmas at Crann would not have been possible without the support of Community Foundation Ireland – Toy Show Appeal, Rethink Ireland, Talos Limited, BioMarin, Smyths Toys , VelocityEHS, Greenveldt, Inniscarra Christmas Tree Farm, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Smarttech 247, Mandiant, Google and Buckley Bros Builders.
Kaelyn’s mother Amanda Shannon said:
“It’s just a very special moment for us, we do a lot of stuff in the Crann Centre so then to experience Christmas with them in their winter wonderland is fantastic. Kaelyn and her brother and sister were delighted to meet Santa and they even got a bit of Christmas magic so they loved it.”
Over 470 families have now availed of services at the Crann Centre which is determined to grow its community and bring more supports and services to families in 2024.
For more details on how to support or donate to the Crann Centre or to avail of their services go to www.cranncentre.ie