THE sister of an Ennis teenager who tragically died in a drowning accident has described as “amazing” the response to a fundraising effort for Water Safety Ireland in memory of her brother.
Danielle Kenneally’s brother Jack was just 15 when he and his friend Shay Moloney lost their lives after getting into difficulty swimming in a disused quarry.
She decided to raise funds for WSI and create water safety awareness through her new business as she wanted to do “anything to save another family going through what we went through.”
Danielle and her best friend Chantell Keane co-founded home fragrance business Wix and Wax last year, and this month they have decided to donate all profits from a specially created ‘Daisy snap-bar’ to WSI in memory of Jack.
“I wanted to do something in his memory, and we have a bit of platform with the business to promote awareness of water safety. Now that we have the nice weather there will be people out there who are tempted to go swimming in places that they shouldn’t. We wanted to get ahead of this and create that awareness. The way we see it if this campaign saves just one person, has one person thinking maybe I shouldn’t be swimming here, then it will all be worth it.”
She revealed that the daisy has a strong significance to the Kenneally family. “Jack kept a daisy on the back of his phone, and that’s something that my family have always held onto. It’s like our little symbol of Jack.
“He was the baby of the family, always the joker. He was always smiling and laughing at something and trying to make somebody else laugh. He was really such a happy teenager.”
The main aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of water safety, Danielle tells us. As well as supporting WSI by purchasing the bar, a leaflet featuring water safety tips spelling out DAISY is also being included.
“IWS is very close to our hearts and they helped us come up with the water safety tips. For D, don’t swim alone; A, always wear a lifejacket; I if you see someone in difficulty phone 999/112; S swim at lifeguarded waterways and always between flags, and Y you should always swim within your depth and parallel to the shore.”
She has been overwhelmed with the response so far, with the awareness campaign reaching 100,000 people online while sales of the product are flying out.
“Our goal was to sell 1000 bars over the month, we actually have done over 300 already over the weekend. I can’t believe it, we had 200 ready before we launched and thought it would do for a while and then they were gone so we had to go and make more. We can’t believe the response, it’s been amazing. As a community Ennis is like that, always very supportive.”
The fundraising snap-bars are available on their website wixandwaxireland.com/