Support Daisy Days 2011

Our biggest annual fundraiser, Daisy Days, is here again. This Thursday, Friday and Saturday (15-17 September), our volunteers will be out selling daisy chains all over Ireland.

These pretty tokens symbolise the strength we gain by joining together - but how will your donation make a difference?

Our services
• More than 450,000 people in Ireland experience depression at any one time: that’s over one in ten people going through a depressive episode right now. For each person who experiences depression, up to 5 friends and family members are affected.

• We answered about 15,000 calls on our helpline in 2010. This year we’re answering even more. Our email support service has also seen a big increase.

• This year, we’ll run more than 2,000 depression support group sessions for those suffering from depression, with a number of new groups opening around the country.

• We've also launched a new online support group service this year, thanks in part to your Daisy Days donations in 2010. Meetings take place every weeknight from Monday to Friday and we'll continue to grow this service.

• Over 12,000 secondary school students take part in our Beat the Blues workshop each year. 90% of teachers who participate say that they feel better equipped to deal with students' emotional difficulties as a result.

Where the money goes
• Last year, we spent over €1m in total providing information and support services all around Ireland.

• Because our helpline is a loCall number, every call costs us money. We also need money to train volunteers for all of our support services, and to deliver our Beat the Blues talks.

• Almost 85% of our funding last year came from donations and fundraising efforts and Daisy Days is our biggest fundraiser every year.



• We have set ourselves a target of delivering Beat the Blues to 90% of transition-year students by 2014, as well as increasing capacity across all of our support services. Please support Daisy Days and help us to achieve this.

You can:

• Buy a daisy chain from a seller in your local area over the next few days. Look out for our volunteer sellers at your local shop or supermarket.

• Donate by text (SMS donations have now closed).

• Donate online now.

A huge thank you to everyone - volunteers and donors - who is supporting the Daisy Days Festival 2011. We hope it will be the best year yet.

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