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Pay It Forward Kindness Festival 2019 to set to take place in Limerick for its fifth year. Michael O Mahony, Pay It Forward, David Kidney, thirty-second St Paul’s Limerick Scouts and Dr Dermot O Mahony were in Limerick to launch the fifth Annual Festival of Kindness. Photo: Oisin McHugh/True Media.

Pay It Forward Kindness Festival 2019 to Spread a Wave of Kindness Across Limerick

The fifth annual Pay It Forward Kindness Festival will take place in Limerick from Saturday, March 9, to Saturday, March 16, with numerous free events and activities designed to highlight the kindness in every part of Limerick city. 

Over seven days, free events organised by Pay It Forward Limerick (PIFL), with the support of over 100 volunteers, will be hosted throughout Limerick including a large Family Fun Day, a pamper day, free music sessions and lots more. 

A growing number of businesses are getting behind the Festival and this year Bus Eireann, Starbucks and EBS on William Street, among others, will be organising activities designed to inspire continuing acts of kindness. 

Michael O Mahony, Pay It Forward in Limerick to launch the fifth Annual Festival of Kindness.
Photo: Oisin McHugh/True Media.

Michael O’Mahony, a member of the PIFL board, said, “We’re thrilled to have so many eager volunteers and businesses getting behind the festival as we want to touch as many people as possible with the positive momentum and energy of carrying out kind acts over the course of the week. In promoting kindness, we’re aiming to change attitudes, build self-esteem and mental health resilience by creating a sense of community cohesiveness.”

Brian Connolly, Regional Operations Manager, Bus Éireann said “We are delighted to play our part in the Kindness Festival in Limerick city. A random act of kindness may not change the world, but it might make a difference in somebody’s life. Whether it’s an act of kindness to a driver or a member of the public sitting beside you, by engaging in an act of kindness it will be encouraged by others to carry it on”.

The Festival week will kick off with a Family Fun Day on Saturday, March 9, on Bedford Row. From 11 am to 2 pm there will be face painting, children’s crafts, printmaking, music, medical and physio consultations and a few more surprises for all to enjoy.

From Sunday, March 10, to Friday, March 15, Community Unity Days have been organised to encourage volunteers, local businesses and the people of Limerick to carry out intentional acts of kindness for Pay It Forward Kindness Festival 2019. This programme of activity will include little gestures such as children baking buns and delivering them to the unsung heroes of the community, showing the Pay It Forward movie, free pampering and massage and talks at local schools. People who receive these acts of kindness will then be encouraged to carry it on in return to someone else, creating the ripple effect. 

kindness festival

Faye O Sullivan, age 6, and Archie O Sullivan, age 5, from Naionra na Nog in Limerick to launch the fifth Annual Festival of Kindness.
Photo: Oisin McHugh/True Media.

Michael O’Mahony explains, “Being kind to one another acknowledges our own capacity for kindness and also has the benefit of ‘feeling good’ for both giver and receiver. Our aim for the Kindness Festival is to create a ripple effect that will develop into a wave of kindness where people will continue to carry out acts of kindness for the duration of the festival and throughout the rest of the year.”

Businesses interested in getting behind the Pay It Forward Kindness Festival 2019 are invited to contact Pay It Forward through its Facebook page.

For more information on the Kindness festival, go here.

For more stories on the Kindness festival, go here.

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