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Dream Machine delivers Santa to the door of Limerick Boy Joey Dream Machine delivers Santa to the door of Limerick Boy Joey

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Share A Dream & the Dream Machine delivers Santa to the door of Limerick Boy Joey

Published

9 years ago

on

Pictured above: Joey with Santa.

When Joey Enright saw the Share A Dreams “Dream Machine” pull up outside his home in Clonard, Westbury little did he know more surprises lay inside.

Joey’s dad approached Share A Dream as he was struggling to get his young son into the spirit of Christmas. Joey absolutely loves Santa. This year however Joeys Dad, Keith, was struggling to find somewhere that caters to Joeys unique needs.

In a letter sent to Share A Dream Keith wrote ,“Our son Joey suffers from Autism and we are finding it very difficult to find a place to see Santa. He becomes uncomfortable in large crowds and really struggles with long queues. He loves meeting Santa but we can’t seem to get a grotto to cater to his needs and as we can’t take our other children without him unfortunately they are also missing out which is heart-breaking”.


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The thoughts of a family of children missing out on Santa due to one child having special needs spurred the Share A Dream team into action. “Our primary focus in Share A Dream is that all children are included in society so when we saw a family faced with this problem we had to do something special for them. We often say that a child with a disability can lead to a family with a disability” said Shay Kinsella, C.E.O. Share A Dream.

Something very special happened, however, on Thursday evening when Santa abandoned his sleigh and hitched a ride in the Dream Machine to visit Joey, his family and friends. Being purposely built to appeal to children of all abilities the Dream Machine was the ideal mode of transport for Santa on this occasion.

“This has been a truly magical experience for Joey and the entire family. We cannot believe that Share A Dream have organised all this for Joey on such short notice. We are absolutely blown away and so grateful”, said Joeys dad Keith.

“People whose children do not have special needs are unaware of the struggles some families face with simple occasions like visiting Santa.  Christmas is for all children and we were delighted to join Santa in making this Christmas a little more magical for Joey and his family” said Shay.

Share A Dream will endeavour to make more dreams come true for children in the new year and if you would like to support them in creating unique experiences and smiles for sick and disabled children across Ireland call 061 200080 or visit www.shareadream.ie. You can also text “share” to 50300 to donate €2 to this fantastic cause.

If you would like to read more about Share A Dream you can do so here!

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Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.