Potato producer digs deep for Children to Lapland charity

Glens of Antrim Potatoes has teamed up with the Northern Ireland Children to Lapland and Days To Remember Trust in a three-year partnership that will help the charity bring hundreds of local children with terminal illnesses and life-limiting conditions to experience the festive magic of Lapland.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Nov 2019, 15:30 BST
(l-r) Colin Barkley, chair, NI Children to Lapland and Days To Remember Trust; Michael McKillop, Managing Director, Glens of Antrim Potatoes; and Fiona Williamson, the charitys co-ordinator.(l-r) Colin Barkley, chair, NI Children to Lapland and Days To Remember Trust; Michael McKillop, Managing Director, Glens of Antrim Potatoes; and Fiona Williamson, the charitys co-ordinator.
(l-r) Colin Barkley, chair, NI Children to Lapland and Days To Remember Trust; Michael McKillop, Managing Director, Glens of Antrim Potatoes; and Fiona Williamson, the charitys co-ordinator.

Glens of Antrim Potatoes has already raised approximately £25,000 for the charity since they joined forces in 2012.

Michael McKillop, managing director of Glens of Antrim Potatoes, was a close friend of the founder of the charity, the late Jack Rodgers MBE who passed away earlier this year.

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Mr McKillop said: “The NI Children to Lapland and Days To Remember Trust is a very special organisation that makes a difference to vulnerable children here who face big battles everyday alongside their families. It is an honour for us to get behind such a great cause and inject a bit of magic and joy at Christmas time for those who deserve it most.

“Glens of Antrim Potatoes has been playing a role at the dinner table in many homes here. Family is at the core of our brand and so to connect with a charity that has family experiences at its heart makes perfect sense.

“The work that Jack Rodgers dedicated to his charity leaves a philanthropic legacy that we are only too happy to help continue.”

The charity’s next trip to Lapland will take place on December 17, when over 100 children, nominated by health workers throughout all the paediatric departments in hospitals here, will travel to Lapland.

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The charity, which was set up ten years ago, has transported over 1,000 terminally ill children and those with life-limiting conditions, to Santa Park in Roveniemi, the official home of Santa Claus on the Arctic Circle.

Colin Barkley, the new Chair of NI Children to Lapland and Days To Remember Trust, said: “We are extremely grateful to Glens of Antrim Potatoes for all the support they have given us and the funds they have raised to date for the charity. This pledge to support us for a further three years will not just help us continue Jack Rodgers’ work but will also grow the charity.”