Dundalk shops win Community Initiative of the Year award

Last Wednesday night at the ShelfLife Convenience Store Awards, Colin Fee's four shops in Dundalk (Maxol Dublin Rd and Maxol Avenue Rd and Centra Castletown Rd and Centra Greenacres) combined to win the national 'Community Initiative of the Year Award'. 

The award, presented by RTE's Marty Wheelan and sponsored by Kellogs, included twelve nominees from all over Ireland, with some fantastic completion. 

The shops were chosen because of a body of community work, but with a particular focus on their Charity of the Month scheme, where the shops picked a local charity for each month of the year and donated all their fundraising efforts for that month towards this charity. 

Since starting in April, they have already raised a combined €15k+ for some great local causes, including the Dundalk Men's Shed, SNAP, Dundalk/Newry Samaritans, North Louth Hospice etc. 

When deciding the winner, Shelflife also took into consideration some of their community work including the installation of defibrillators across their shops, providing a free breakfast for Darkness into Light, turning their shops pink for June and donating 50c per sandwich to the local '100k in 30 days' charity and sponsorship for local football clubs including Cuchulainn Gaels.

“Since starting our Charity of the Month program and participating in a number of other initiatives, we have been able to see first hand the levels of dedication and hard work that so many of the volunteers from local charities and community groups put in- Dundalk should be very proud,” said Paddy O’ Hanlon.