Two Irish brothers raise thousands for frontline healthcare workers

Such a wholesome initiative.

Back in March, brothers Senan (5) and Jonah (7) from Dublin posted a picture of 'superhero potatoes' in support of frontline workers with the caption 'Not All Heroes Wear Capes'. The post came after the boys' mum, Ruth Brady, had a chat with them about what really makes a superhero and Senan replied: "Mum, it's the people who defeat the virus." Jonah made up a list of people who really help other people and the two brothers created their own little frontline potato scene. The post blew up and it has sparked a Thank-you gift card initiative headed up by Irish company, Keogh's. When Tom Keogh of Keogh's Farm saw the Facebook post, he got to thinking:

"If two young Irish boys can share such a meaningful message, surely we, as a nation, can send an equally powerful message to our frontline heroes - simply say 'thank you'. Like many, I have close family friends who have suddenly found themselves on our frontlines, fighting for us in this invisible war against Covid 19. These frontline heroes in the healthcare system go to work, day in day out, putting themselves - and even worse, their own loved ones - in constant danger of infection. In these unprecedented times, I realised there was no means for people who want to thank our heroes to do so. So #IrelandThanksYou was born."

What IrelandThanksYou does is provide a way for people to gives their thanks to online workers in a simple but meaningful way. Tom explains:

"Leo gave us the slogan and our logo was drawn by Senan and Jonah. We've set a goal to get 5,000 special 'IrelandThanksYou' gift cards to the value of €100 to 5,000 frontline heroes in healthcare. That means €500k to create 5,000 'Thank Yous'. We've set the bar high, but I believe that Irish sentiment will match this. It's a big number - maybe we will, maybe we won't - but at least we tried."

The IrelandThanksYou special edition cards are to be supplied by One4All and you can get involved by visiting www.irelandthanksyou.ie to donate to the fund. For every €25 donation, the person donating receives a free "Not all superheroes wear capes" t-shirt. Irish businesses are joining forces to pay for the costs of the t-shirt, and all parties involved in creating the campaign have volunteered their time, so 100 percent of donations are going straight to the healthcare workers. The colour of the free t-shirts is also significant as they are "scrubs blue" in honour of the frontline workers. Tom asks people to wear the t-shirts and share #wearblue to send a message of support to our frontline workers and to spread the word from the safety of our homes. We are just loving this. And imagine - set up by two young boys under the age of ten and their potatoes. Go on, Senan and Jonah.