Johnson Controls staff to climb Carrauntoohil for charity

STAFF members at Johnson Controls in Cork will climb Carrauntoohil next month to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland.

The climb, which will take place on September 2, was inspired by one of their colleagues, Priscilla Carroll, whose two children were born with the disorder.

Priscilla’s two-year-old son Lucas is battling the disorder while her daughter, Alice, passed away within a few days of birth as she had an aggressive type of Cystic Fibrosis.

John Duggan is a member of the involve committee of the company and pitched the idea of the climb to his colleagues, who all jumped at the chance to raise funds for such a worthy cause.

“It all started last summer when I climbed Croagh Patrick with my wife and I said, ‘Right, I’ve done Croagh Patrick, the next one I want to do is Carrauntoohil’ — I said why don’t we do it for charity,” John explained.

“So, I proposed it to the involve committee, they were on-board and so was Priscilla.”

The involve committee deals with volunteering, fundraising and other forms of charity work that the company and staff members can get involved in.

Johnson Controls offer staff members the opportunity to lodge ‘volunteer hours’, which are valued at $10 per hour of volunteering or fundraising.

“With the company itself, there’s 40 of us after signing up for the climb,” John added.

“We are all fundraising and anything we donate the company will match our donation.

“The other way we can fundraise is to log our volunteer hours on the Johnson Controls system and for every hour we log, we will get $10.

“Let’s say there’s 40 people, the climb will probably take us 13 hours each, that’s $130 straight away. Multiply that by 40, you’re looking at over $5,000 straightaway,” he explained.

Priscilla and her husband, Padraig, have been fundraising for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland for years.

Padraig climbed Patrick’s Hill 65 times in April this year in aid of the charity.

The climb took just after 12 hours to complete.

Speaking to The Echo, Priscilla said:

“We are really happy to have this opportunity to raise awareness for CF.

“We are trying to raise money for CF, for the nurses and everyone involved.”

The climb will take place on Saturday, September 2.

Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/t3gev-cystic-fibrosis-ireland