Cork golf club coffee morning raises €3,000 for Deaf Enterprises

A Cork sports club has raised money for the country’s only dedicated employer of the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Members of Muskerry Golf Club held a charity coffee morning in their clubhouse and raised €3,000 for Deaf Enterprises, a Cork charity that has, over the past 37 years, given training and placements, as well as full-time employment, to deaf people.

Deaf Enterprises, which is in Ballinlough, was founded in 1987 by Father Bill Clarke, and it has earned a reputation for furniture repair, re-upholstery, French polishing, and renovation of the highest quality.

Landfill

Every year, Deaf Enterprises repair, re-upholster, and restore an estimated 150 tonnes of furniture that might otherwise end up in landfill.

The charity remains Ireland’s only dedicated employer of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and it employs 35 staff, 28 of whom are deaf or hard of hearing, or identify as having a disability. Since Deaf Enterprises began, over 100 deaf people have taken part in employment, training, or work-experience initiatives in the company, with most going on to further employment.

Two years ago, the business expanded into bike repair, with some of its employees trained to be bicycle mechanics.

Deaf Enterprises was the beneficiary of the charity coffee morning held by Muskerry Golf Club’s lady captain, Angela Leahy, and the event raised €3,000.

Ms Leahy told The Echo she had, over the years, had many items of furniture renovated and reupholstered at Deaf Enterprises and she had decided to get 48 of Muskerry Golf Club’s chairs reupholstered by them.

Renovated

“They gave us a very good price, and the quality of their work is fantastic, so, while I was there, I was thinking of our coffee morning and I said to Steve [Flint], their general manager, ‘I’m holding a coffee morning and I was thinking maybe we could benefit you’, and he was absolutely delighted,” Ms Leahy said.

“So we had our coffee morning, they gave us a beautiful first prize, and we raised €3,000. There must have been about 60 people there, afterwards, and they all spoke to Steve about the work that they do, and the fantastic value that they give for the sheer quality of work that they do.”

Steve Flint, general manager of Deaf Enterprises, said the board and staff of Deaf Enterprises were extremely grateful to Ms Leahy and to the members of Muskerry Golf Club.

“We appreciate that Angela and the club’s officers have chosen to support us in this way, and, at the same time, entrusting us with the re-upholstery of the club-house chairs.

“This donation will be instrumental in helping us achieve our mission to provide employment opportunities for the deaf and hard of hearing community,” Mr Flint said.

For more information about Deaf Enterprises visit https://www.deafenterprises.ie.