CHARITIES across Ireland are continuing to clean up thanks to the generous efforts of a Lifford car wash.
Through car shows and ‘car and coffee mornings’ Joe Soaps has to date raised €36,440 for ten different good causes.
Among the latest to benefit was the Eoin Henry Foundation, a cancer charity set up in 2017 following Eoin’s death at the age of
just 20.
The Foundation received a cheque for €1,690 from the Joe Soaps team.
And a climb up Errigal organised by Toot Porter and a squad of volunteers added a further €10,000 to the campaign to help Rocco McGinley, the Buncranateenager battling a rare and lifethreatening brain tumour.
On hand to oversee the presentation of the cheque to Rocco was Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Graham
Warke as well as Honourary Garda officer Jack Beattie.
As a high powered car enthusiast, proprietor Keith ‘Bear’ Gamble regularly enlists the help of friends and fellow muscle car owners to put on events. To date they have held four car shows and five car and coffee mornings, all of which drew big crowds to Lifford’s Applegreen where Joe Soaps is based.
That figure of €36,440 is likely to rise significantly shortly when the ‘Bear Run 74’ sets off on April 30. Sponsored by Applegreen, the
event will see top of the range vehicles including Porsches and Lamborghinis assemble in Lifford before heading off on a three day
trip around Donegal.
Participants will take in Derry Airport before heading for Inishowen through north Donegal before eventually arriving at Letterkenny’s Mountain Top.
“The Bear Run 74 is named after my father Joe who passed away on July 7 last year from cancer at the age of 74. The Bear Run
is a way of keeping his name and his memory alive,” said Joe Soaps owner Bear.
The Bear Run will raise money for Mayor Graham Warke’s chosen charity, Foyle Down Syndrome Trust.
Mayor Warke, Bear Gamble and others teamed up last year for a Supercar Sunday in Derry’s Guildhall Square which saw a
Corvette, Mustang, Lamborghinis, McLarens and Ferraris all put on display.
That event raised £4,104 for Foyle Down Syndrome, an event Mayor Warke described as “fantastic”.
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