By Louise Flanagan
Letterkenny Babies Facebook page recently hit the milestone of having 40,000 followers.
It amazes me that the page I set up over ten years ago has grown to such an extent.
It was never my intention to set up a page with such a large following, but I am very proud that it has outgrown all of my original aspirations and taken on a life of its own in so many ways.
I set the page up when I was still on maternity leave with my eldest child, Lucy.
I’d met lovely mammies at baby massage and the likes, and I wanted a way of keeping in touch with them and making connections with friends of friends who also had babies.
In short, I set up the page for purely selfish friend-finding reasons!
In the early days, there were a dozen or so of us who used the page to arrange buggy walks together and to share information about baby related bargains in the local supermarkets; half price nappies and magical nappy rash creams.
Over the weeks, I noticed that other people started to use the page too; people that I didn’t know or have any mutual friends with.
Why on earth were they following my wee page? Oh well, the more the merrier, I thought.
Some fast maths shows that on average, the page has gained over ten new followers every day since its conception.
It became apparent very quickly that I couldn’t manage the volume of messages in the inbox singlehandedly.
I roped in two girls who were regular contributors to the page; I noticed that they often added helpful commentary on a whole range of queries.
And so, I reached out to both Edel McElhinney and Clare Molloy as a stranger, asking for help with this monstrous page.
They were both delighted to get involved, although I’m sure there are days when they question their life choices in relation to it now!
The inbox regularly receives over 100 messages a day. It never cools. The faster you clear the inbox, the faster it fills again.
Meeting Edel and Clare has definitely been the greatest outcome of the page for me; I set it up to make friends after all, and I found two of the best girls on the go.
As for the page, we now receive a plethora of questions.
My sink is leaking.
My cat is lost.
My nails need done.
Anything goes these days!
Due to the volume of messages we receive, we do have to archive quite a lot, particularly if they are not baby related.
However, at this stage, most queries have been asked already and there is a search option to find previous posts relating to bouncy castles or photographers or painters or anything else you might need.
We have used the page to raise more than €70,000 for local charities over the years – mainly thanks to our annual Christmas Jumper Party and raffle.
It’s great that page members come out to support us when we get mad notions.
It’s not a perfect page, by any means, but we try our best to keep it a positive and safe corner of social media.
We try not to facilitate too much ‘giving out’ but rather try to promote the good things that are happening in the area.
Recently, someone messaged in saying that they found a distinctive charm bracelet on the Main Street of Letterkenny nearly 30 years previously.
They had tried to find the owner many times over the years, but eventually the bracelet got forgotten about in a drawer.
They decided to chance asking on Letterkenny Babies, and within 15 minutes, someone messaged in to claim the bracelet on behalf of their mother.
There were tears of gratitude upon the return of the bracelet, because it was of extreme sentimental value.
That’s one example of a miracle performed on the page, but there have been many others.
There’s no shortage of kindness in the daily interactions on the page.
Just this week, a local family offered a 5 star all inclusive holiday to Turkey, free of charge, to a deserving couple nominated on the page.
They messaged in with the details but wish to remain anonymous.
I’d like to thank them for this incredible generosity and for opting to use Letterkenny Babies as a platform to spread such kindness.
That’s what it’s all about.
Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies Facebook page and the author of the children’s book series Dragonterra and Dream Beasts. www.dragonterra.ie
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