With the Clongowes Duck Push marking its twentieth birthday this year we managed to give it a perfect celebration with another successful push in aid of Our Ladies Children’s Hospital Crumlin. Having done quite a substantial amount of fundraising prior to the actual push gave us great motivation going towards the main event. Our entire year collaborated to raise funds through every means possible, from umbrellas to milkshakes to golf tournaments, we tried our best.
Eventually with a substantial nest egg we began our annual push from Crumlin to Limerick on Wednesday 6th of June; whilst other years were starting their exams we were undertaking a test of our own. We all began the push together from Crumlin Children’s Hospital not really concerning ourselves with traffic lights as our main thought was how are we going to do this for a week and a half!!!? Whilst one group would push the duck the remainder of the group would collect in nearly every town along our way to Limerick. We spent some nights in Glenstal Abbey and Cistercian College Roscrea, who always accommodate, help and support us.
This was a great experience to undertake and is one of the most rewarding and most memorable ones Clongowes has to offer. One of the best feelings whilst collecting was when someone would tell you a story of a relative or friend, who was helped by Crumlin Hospital and how we were indirectly helping them by giving back. It was undeniably an amazing experience and one which only caused us to crash the duck a few times. It couldn’t have happened without the generosity of Mr. Tony Egan who, every year gives up a lot of time to help run this project and keep us running. Thanks also to the staff members of the college who gave up their time and the Gap students who helped us out on a few kilometers here and there – especially on the hills. It was because of a great group effort that we raised a massive €75,000 – an increase on last year and more than we ever expected. We are all very grateful to everyone who helped and supported us this year and since our beginning twenty years ago.
Henry Mongey & Gavin Moore
