Pyjama Day 2012

 

National Pyjama Day 2012

This year National Pyjama Day took place on Friday23rd March in early childhood care and education services around the country. 

 

Early Childhood Ireland's National Pyjama Day

Chloe Keenaghan from An Gairdin Montessori, Mullingar on National Pyjama Day

 

A big THANK YOU to all the services who took part helped to make the day such a huge success!

A message from the Irish Hospice Foundation:

The Irish Hospice Foundation is delighted to be involved with Early Childhood Ireland’s National Pyjama Day for the last two years. This year over a six month period the Irish Hospice Foundation have worked closely with Early Childhood Ireland to help ensure that the 2012 event on March 23rd was the most successful ever and we are delighted to say that we are on the way to achieving this goal. This has been a fantastic partnership for the IHF and this year we hope to raise €300k for our ‘Children’s Hospice Home Care’ programme  which will offer support to families who are caring for seriously ill children in their own homes.

Commenting about the partnership, Sharon Foley, CEO, The Irish Hospice Foundation said: “In the tragic event of a family having a child with a terminal diagnosis, most families want their child to be able to die at home in his or her own bedroom, surrounded by their loving family, toys and pets. We are so grateful that tens of thousands of children, through Early Childhood Ireland, with the support of their parents -  have extended the hand of friendship to other youngsters by taking part in National Pyjama Day.   With the funds raised from National Pyjama Day, we can support families and professionals to deliver quality care to children in their own homes when the end is approaching.  The Irish Hospice Foundation is looking forward to working alongside Early Childhood Ireland again next year in order to reach our shared goal of improving the services available to children with life-limiting conditions.”

 

In their June newsletter the Irish Hospice Foundation provided an update on how the money being raised through National Pyjama Day is being used, as well as an interview with Dr. Mary Devins, who was recruited as Ireland’s first Consultant Paediatrician with a Special Interest in Palliative Medicine.  Download the IHF articles.

 

Total Raised So Far

As the services who participated in National Pyjama Day continue to send in the money that they have raised over the coming months, we will be updating the Pyjama Day Total on a weekly basis so that you can track the progress on the way to our target of €300,000.

The current Pyjama Day Total is  €224,337.47 .

Many thanks to all the services who have already sent in the money they raised for National Pyjama Day 2012!

Certificates will be printed and issued, from Monday 21st May onwards.

 

Visit to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin

Irene Gunning and Teresa Heeney of Early Childhood Ireland were recently invited to visit Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin by the Irish Hospice Foundation. 

This visit gave them the opportunity to meet with many of the practitioners involved in the Children’s Hospice Homecare Programme and to receive a first hand account of the ways in which the money from Early Childhood Ireland’s National Pyjama Day is used. 

During the visit Dr Mary Devins, Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Care, stressed the importance of increasing the awareness of palliative care as a recognised approach to looking after a child with a life-limiting illness

Visit to Crumlin Children's Hospital

(Left to Right): Dr Maeve O'Reilly, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, St Luke's Hospital Dr Mary Devins, Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Care, OLCHC and The Coombe Teresa Heeney, Chief Operations Officer, Early Childhood Ireland Dr Caitriona Kerr, SHO in Palliative Medicine, St Luke's Hospital Irene Gunning, CEO of Early Childhood Ireland Dr Sharon Beatty, SpR in Palliative Medicine, St Luke's Hospital Bevan Ritchie, Out-Reach Nurse for Children with Life-Limiting Illnesses, Temple Street Hospital.

 

Donate

This year, all funds raised by the National Pyjama Day will go to the Irish Hospice Foundation’s Children’s Hospice Home Care Programme which provides palliative home hospice care for very sick children.

THIS YEAR AND WITH YOUR HELP, we believe that we can achieve our target of €300,000 so please donate now.

National Pyjama Day was held on Friday 23rd March 2012 but donations can continue over the next six months.

 

Coverage of National Pyjama Day

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    Have a listen to the National Pyjama Day advert which played on radio stations across the country.

  • Watch a replay of the coverage of National Pyjama Day on IrelandAM: http://www.tv3.ie/3player/show/184/46659/1/

  • Watch a replay of the RTE News2Day broadcast about National Pyjama Day: http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0323/news2day.html#

  

 

Registering and Pyjama Day Packs

Anyone involved in the early childhood care and education sector was welcome to take part in National Pyjama Day.

Services simply registered to receive Pyjama Day Packs which included a range of goodies for the children, such as balloons, stickers and even sunflower seeds for planting.

You can see the Pyjama Day packs being kindly assembled in the gallery of images below:

Even though the date of the official National Pyjama Day has already passed services can still register for the packs if they want to hold their own event at a later date.

 The quickest way to register now is to call the Pyjama Day Coordinator directly on 087 275 5675.

This year we tried to keep down the costs of sending out the Pyjama Day Packs to ensure that we are able to give the most amount of money possible to the Irish Hospice Foundation’s Home Care Service.  Therefore,we have also provided downloadable versions of some items from the pack, including the sponsorship card, which can be printed off so that every child in your service has a copy.  

 

 

National Pyjama Day Press Release

Read the full press release about the launch of Early Childhood Ireland’s National Pyjama Day 2012.