The money raised will be donated to their charity partner AWARE NI and brings the total funds now raised by Maxol for Aware to over £600,000 across the island of Ireland over seven years.

This year’s campaign, Cup of Kindness, was launched to coincide with World Kindness Day on 13^th November and ensured that for every cup of Barista Bar hot drink bought at participating Maxol service stations, 10p was donated to AWARE NI.

Brian Donaldson, CEO of The Maxol Group said: “I am delighted to see the success of our Cup of Kindness campaign. Our fundraising for AWARE now goes well beyond £600,000 and I’d like to thank our customers, retailers and staff who have continued to support this campaign with their kindness and generosity.

“By simply buying a hot drink we can provide vital funds that we know will have a real and lasting impact for AWARE NI and everyone they help across Northern Ireland,” he added.

Clare Galbraith, Head of Fundraising at AWARE said: “We’re so grateful to have been a part of this hugely successful campaign once again! Thank you to everyone at Maxol for this fantastic donation to help us continue our work to improve the lives of people with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.”

AWARE NI is the only charity working exclusively for people with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, which means the proceeds will go directly to preventative, community-based and supportive work across the country.

To find out more about Maxol and its partnership with AWARE, visit www.maxol.ie

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They will directly donate 10c from every cup of its ROSA Coffee or other hot drink purchased during November and December. Last year the Christmas campaign raised over €65,000 and Maxol hopes to surpass that figure with its new ‘Cup of Kindness’ campaign.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Aware is receiving an average of 2600 calls each month to its free support line and urgently needs more funding.

Drew Flood, from the charity, said many of the calls they receive are from those who are finding it difficult to re-engage into society following the pandemic.

“Our teams are noticing that the transition to reintegrate into society is proving a real challenge for many. This is a new issue for society, certainly linked to the pandemic and is contributing to the 2600 calls on average that we are now receiving every month,” said Drew.

‘Being kind doesn’t have to mean grand gestures, it’s often the little things that can have the greatest impact’

Brian Donaldson

“The ongoing support from corporate organisations, like Maxol, has enabled Aware to build on its regular services and we recently set up four weekly Ukraine Support Groups, which are providing a space for people who have fled following the invasion of their country in February.

“These are vital services, and we are already seeing the benefits, but we need ongoing funding so we can continue to support those who need us,” he added.

The concept behind the Cup of Kindness campaign is simple: customers can perform an act of kindness by purchasing a ROSA Coffee or other hot drink for someone else when they buy one for themselves. Participating customers will be presented with a star when they purchase a hot drink for another person, on which they are invited to write a message of kindness. The star is then hung from a Cup of Kindness Christmas tree in the Maxol store.

The next customer can take that star to pay for their cup of coffee or hot drink and, if they wish, they too can purchase a Cup of Kindness for the next customer and hang a star on the tree.

CEO of The Maxol Group, Brian Donaldson said: “Being kind doesn’t have to mean grand gestures; it’s often the little things that can have the greatest impact.

“That is why Maxol has launched the Cup of Kindness campaign and we hope that the funds raised for Aware, and acts of kindness shown over the next few weeks, will have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate.”

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AWARE’s position as the only charity working exclusively for people with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder means the proceeds will go directly to preventative, community-based and supportive work across the country.

Over the months of November and December, the campaign ensured that for every cup of coffee or tea purchased at participating Maxol service stations, 10p was donated to AWARE.

Brian Donaldson, CEO of The Maxol Group, said: “I’m truly grateful for the generosity of our customers, and the hard work of our staff, which has resulted in a truly impressive sum to benefit AWARE. This donation will ensure that they can carry on the essential work they’ve been providing, for people all across Northern Ireland.”

Clare Galbraith, Head of Fundraising at AWARE, said: “A huge thank you to everyone at Maxol for continuing this brilliant campaign, where our work to improve the lives of people with depression is as vital now as ever before. After a difficult two years, we are looking forward to transforming this donation into life-changing support, for those who need it most.”

To find out more about Maxol and its partnership with AWARE, visit www.maxol.ie.

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They say china is the perfect gift to celebrate a 20th anniversary, but the reward for Kearney’s as it approached its 20th year on its site in Randalstown was a serious ramping up of the workload.

Despite the challenges of lockdown, the store continued its same-day delivery service for its customers even when people were struggling to book delivery slots at the bigger multiples, according to store manager Oonagh Kearney..

“Thankfully we were able to get enough stock and we seemed to be getting through quite well with it and getting people what they needed,” she says.

“We had four vans on the road, and the customers emailed or phoned in their orders and they got them that day.”

Deliveries

It’s a telling sign of the affection in which Kearney’s is held that the community rallied round to make sure customers got their deliveries at the height of lockdown.

“Before Covid, we were probably doing in and around 15 deliveries a day, but when Covid hit, we rose to around 120 deliveries on one particular day. It was a massive increase,” Oonagh says.

“Thankfully some of the local clubs stepped in and one or two of them helped us to make the deliveries, including Tir na Nog and Creggan football clubs.

“Also, some local people in the community stepped forward to help and it really showed how Randalstown is really a community where everyone is there to help.

“The deliveries were a massive thing, trying to get that organised, but thankfully our staff stuck by us as well and they all worked really hard through it.

“We had a few isolated cases of Covid where they got it outside of the shop, but thankfully we didn’t have any outbreaks which was good. We found that because we were doing high volumes of deliveries we kept footfall into the shop to a minimum, which protected the staff and everybody felt a little bit safer.”

Presence

Kearney’s has had a presence on that particular site on the main street in Randalstown for the last 20 years, but before that they had a smaller shop, Oonagh says.

“It started off with my great great granny running a shop which was called Scotts at that point. It was a milk bar back then, and then her son, my great uncle Col, took it over and had a fruit and veg shop,” she says.

“And 20 years ago we built the new premises. We had joined Costcutter at that stage and we needed a bigger shop just to evolve the business – at that time there was no other supermarket in the town.

Oonagh is proud of the innovations that the store has undertaken over the years.

“We now have a purpose-built kitchen where we do a lot of our own products. We have our own Kearney’s brands – we don’t supply anyone else, we just do that in our own store,” she says.

The switch to building their own kitchen and making their own food products came in response to changing customer trends, she says.

“People had changed to, rather than making things from scratch themselves, they wanted something that was handy, something they needed to heat, so we found there was a bigger demand for that,” Oonagh says.

A key part of the store’s ethos is its charity work – every year they pick one charity to receive all the money they have raised.

In September, they held a Spinathon just outside the shop which raised £1,875 for AWARE.

To read the full article, click HERE.

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The fundraising campaign, which ran throughout November and December, saw 10p from every hot drink bought in participating Maxol stores donated to AWARE, the depression charity for Northern Ireland.

Mood Matters

The money raised is enough to fund 3 vital support groups for a full year or over 40 Mood Matters workshops, delivered to community groups, schools and workplaces.

Brian Donaldson, Chief Executive Officer at Maxol, said: “I’d like to say a huge thank-you to our amazing staff and loyal customers for getting behind our festive campaign and helping to raise the funds that enables AWARE to continue their vital work across Northern Ireland.

“The last twelve months have been extraordinarily tough for so many people but with AWARE providing help and support there is a way through, and we’re delighted to play our part in funding these services.”

Karen Collins, Chief Executive at AWARE said, “Thank you to all the Maxol customers and staff who contributed to the fundraising campaign last Christmas and helped raise such an extraordinary amount of money for AWARE. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve continued to provide our services for the people of NI and these funds will go a long way in ensuring we can continue to do so.”

‘Amazing charity’

Cool FM Presenter and AWARE Ambassador, Paulo Ross, said: “I am so proud to have been part of the Maxol Christmas Coffee Cup campaign. AWARE is an amazing charity and it is great to see so many people supporting their work across Northern Ireland.”

AWARE is the Depression Charity for Northern Ireland. AWARE provide information, education and support on the illness of depression and deliver a number of wellbeing programmes into schools, workplaces and communities across Northern Ireland. The funds raised by Maxol will go towards helping AWARE increase awareness of positive mental wellbeing in local communities and help to provide support groups and education programmes across the country.

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