Family Day enjoyed by hundreds of families at Iveagh Gardens
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE FAMILY CELEBRATED WITH FAMILY DAY PICNIC & FREE ENTERTAINMENT IN IVEAGH GARDENS
PICNIC HELD BY ONE FAMILY AND EBS BUILDING SOCIETY TO CELEBRATE FAMILIES IN IRELAND
Sunday 15th May, 2011 – Today is UN International Day of the Family, an annual celebration of the diversity of families and family life across the world. To mark the day One Family and EBS Building Society came together to celebrate Irish families by hosting a free family day picnic in Iveagh Gardens. Hundreds of families joined the fun for Family Day by either attending the picnic in Iveagh Gardens or by hosting their own event with their family to mark the day.
Speaking about International Day of the Family, Aidan Power, Head of Marketing at EBS Building Society, said: “EBS is delighted to be partnering with One Family to celebrate International Day of the Family. It’s great to have so many families in the one place enjoying the day. Families are important to EBS and that’s why we partnered with One Family in the lead up to today. I’d like to congratulate One Family on all their hard work in making today a huge success.”
Today, families were invited to a free day of fun in Iveagh Gardens and were encouraged to bring picnics to enjoy together. Activities available to families on the day included arts and crafts workshops, fun sports for all the family, story telling, face painters, magicians and other live entertainment. Those who couldn’t make the picnic were encouraged to host their own fun event to celebrate their families in the week leading up to International Day of the Family. All families who registered for Family Day are still in with a chance to win a €1,000* by simply submitting a photograph from their ‘Family Day’ to www.familyday.ie up until 31 May.
Karen Kiernan, Director of One Family, the national organisation for one-parent families, said: “We are passionate about Family Day because it can be a positive life-affirming event for children in all families but particularly those in diverse families. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are international institutions but they do leave out lots of children every year and they can cause awkwardness and exclusion despite the best efforts of parents and teachers. However the concept of Family Day is so broad that everyone should be able to see themselves reflected in the notion of family no matter what size or shape their family is. Even for those children who may not be living in their family of choice or birth, we hope that they can find something positive and celebratory in Family Day.’
*Terms and conditions apply
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For further information contact:
Karen Kiernan, Director, One Family 01-6629212/ 086 8509191
Suzanne Sullivan, Q4PR, 01-4751444/086-3797291
Notes to editors:
UN definition of the family: “any combination of two or more persons who are bound together by ties of mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement and who, together assume responsibility for, inter alia, the care and maintenance of group members, the addition of new members through procreation or adoption, the socialisation of children and the social control of members”.
For more information on UN International Day of the Family see www.un.org/esa/socdev/family/IDF.html
About One Family:
One Family is Ireland’s leading organisation providing specialist support services for people parenting alone and sharing parenting. Services include parenting and skills training, counselling, parent mentoring and a national helpline askonefamily which can be reached on 1890 66 22 12 or www.onefamily.ie
