WATCH Crescent Shopping Centre shares the magic of Christmas with St Gabriel’s Foundation

Crescent Shopping Centre are supporting St Gabriel’s Foundation this Christmas by inviting families the foundation supports to visit the Santa grotto at the Crescent.  Pictured are Kate Finucane, St Gabriel’s Fundraising & Marketing Manager, Brian O’ Leary, Centre Director, Crescent Shopping Centre, St Gabriel’s Foundation service user Lovre Bilic and his mother Ivana, Tony Cusack as Santa, Eimear Dwan, Marketing Manager, Crescent Shopping Centre and Treasa McAuliffe, CEO St. Gabriels Foundation. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

The Crescent Shopping Centre creates an unforgettable Christmas experience for families from St Gabriel’s Foundation making sure “they feel supported” this holiday season

The Crescent Shopping Centre has come together with St Gabriel’s Foundation to create a Christmas experience for families of children with special needs to provide exclusive, sensory-friendly visits to Santa’s Grotto.

The partnership ensures children who might otherwise miss out on the magical experience of visiting Santa in his grotto before Christmas will get the chance to meet the big man himself in a sensory-friendly environment.

CEO of St Gabriels, Treasa McAuliffe told I Love Limerick it will be a magical moment for the children as “the trip to Santa is such a special time for families”.

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Treasa said, “It’s amazing as we all know the trip to Santa is such a special time for families and for years our children have never been included. Families cannot take them to see Santa because they have sensory issues, or they can’t stand in line, or they have behavioural difficulties, or they just can’t access them because they are in wheelchairs. For our children to be included in a community Santa is actually amazing.”

The St Gabriel’s CEO extended her gratitude to the Crescent Shopping Centre saying it is “amazing” to see the foundation’s children “finally being included in the community”.

She said, “We’re really, really impressed with Crescent this year. And people don’t understand what it will mean to families to be able to take a normal visit to Santa, which is a central part of all our children’s lives.”

St. Gabriel’s Foundation provides therapy services, respite care, hydrotherapy, orthotics, and a special school for more than 1,600 children. Treasa described how the parents of St Gabriel’s Foundation children “often have to fight for services” saying, “It’s just lovely that one thing they don’t have to fight for is that people are finally including them in normal, really special occasions for our families.”

Eimear Dwan, Marketing Manager of the Crescent, explained the idea came through working closely with St Gabriel’s for an upcoming fundraiser and “during those conversations, this idea emerged”.

Eimear noted the experience “fits perfectly with our ethos” and said, “Hopefully this will be the start of a continued relationship of inclusivity and spreading awareness, and working with the community. St Gabriel’s are our neighbours and we just think it’s the perfect fit and we can’t wait to introduce the families from St Gabriel’s and the children to meet Santa this year.”

Lovre, a child attending St. Gabriel’s, summed up the meaning of the event perfectly, saying, “It’s just nice and very kind and generous from them to give us this opportunity to visit Santa, you know, because some kids might have not been able to and now they will.”

The Crescent Shopping Centre will also support St Gabriels this month as Kate Healy, a therapist at St Gabriel’s Foundation and an experienced rower, is attempting to break an Irish, European and World Record by being the first Irish female rower (20-29) to row consecutively for 24 hours. She will be rowing her heart out in the atrium of the Crescent Shopping Centre, Limerick from 11am on November 29th until 11am November 30th to raise funds for St Gabriel’s to raise funds for an Innowalk, a piece of equipment that allows children in wheelchairs to experience dynamic movement and engagement in physical activity.