A Simple Idea…
The Galway Giving Tree was founded in 2010 by Florinda Green. It is based on a charity she encountered in her workplace in California called The Family Giving Tree, which is a Christmas gift drive that has convenience and a personal connection at it’s core.
The idea was so simple and effective that many years later, she wondered if it would work in Galway. In 2010, she contacted a few local businesses and gave the program a test run, collecting items in her car. It was only 100 gifts but it was proof that the concept worked!
In 2012, she ran the program again, this time with the help of her husband, Chris, and sponsorship from Storm Technology to fund a van rental. With more hosts involved, almost 600 gifts were collected and word started to spread about the Galway Giving Tree.
The following year, Imelda (who had taken part as a host business previously) came on board to help to run and grow the programme. With sponsorship from Boston Scientific, space to sort the gifts provided by Barons Self Storage, and a team of elf volunteers, almost 1000 gifts were collected from 21 businesses.
Roll forward to 2018, and the programme had grown so much that more help was needed, and Fintan joined the crew. In 2019, the GGT Committee was formed to start planning for the future, and in 2020 we became an officially registered charity.
Check out our ‘Past Collections’ for details and photos of each year as the collection grew.