Laois homeless charity appeals for help to salvage EP sleeping bags

The Laois homeless charity, PATH, will be collecting sleeping bags from the Electric Picnic campsite this Monday as thousands of campers leave the site.

PATH volunteers go to the campsite in Stradbally every year after the festivities have ended on Monday with the aim of collecting up sleeping bags for the homeless.

Volunteers will collect as many sleeping bags as they can fit in their vehicles and then clean them before giving them out to people who need them.

The group has appealed for more help this year to salvage the EP sleeping bags.

In an appeal on social media, PATH said: “If you have the time to help we would be so grateful if you could take a sleeping bag or two to wash and dry for us. Who knows, maybe some of our followers might own a laundrette?”

The sleeping bags collected at Electric Picnic on Monday will be brought to Laois Shopping Centre on Thursday evening, September 3 at 6.30pm where volunteers will pick them up to clean and dry them.

Then these freshly cleaned sleeping bags will be returned to Laois Shopping Centre the following Thursday, September 10 between 6.30pm and 7.30pm.

The group said: “We have a very brave team of Volunteers willing to rummage through what is left of the picnic to salvage as many sleeping bags as they can get, coming into the colder months these are needed more than ever for our nation's homeless.”

Speaking to the Leinster Express last week, Vice Chairperson of PATH Jason McEvoy said that a lot of work goes into collecting the sleeping bags and then preparing them for people in need.

However, he said it’s an opportunity the group “can’t turn down.”

Praising the work of the local volunteers, the PATH Vice Chairperson said: “It's hard work, but they help us out best they can, knowing that they're going to our homeless.”