About carepack.ie
carepack.ie is a voluntary organisation that runs a kindness campaign every Christmas, connecting residents in Nursing Homes and Care Homes with kind members of the public who would like to send them a gift for Christmas. We also connect Schools and Youth Groups with residents so that young people can send letters, cards and artwork as part of the kindness campaign.
carepack.ie is a giving initiative, where you give with an open heart without expecting anything in return – as you most likely will not get a response from the resident (for a variety of reasons).
This campaign is all voluntary and has quickly become a goodwill movement that first swept the country during the covid pandemic and resulted in 13,000 residents in nursing homes receiving gifts from kind strangers. In 2021, a whopping 20,000 residents received carepacks, and in 2022, 21,000 residents carepacks and an additional 8,000 cards and letters from school kids and youth groups.
Last year, Christmas 2023, we hit a record 22,000+ residents receiving carepacks and an additional 20,000+ youths sending cards and letters and drawings! It’s amazing, we are so grateful to everyone who has participated to date.
An Post have kindly offered freepost every Christmas since we began and also for the entire year of 2023 and 2024 (packages up to 1kg). An Post details here: https://www.anpost.com/Post-Parcels
carepack.ie – spreading kindness one resident at a time!
FURTHER CLARIFICATION ON CAREPACK.IE
- carepack.ie is run solely by volunteers who are not paid for their time.
- carepack.ie does not accept monetary donations.
- carepack.ie does not sell anything.
- It is free to use this website – we use a shopping cart format to process your order, but there is no cost to volunteers who sign up.
- There is no cost to care homes or nursing homes to sign up to this kindness initiative.
- All costs incurred for running this kindness initiative, including website domain and hosting is paid for solely by volunteers from their own private funds and no public contributions have ever been sought to cover those costs.
- This initiative is solely intended to spread a little kindness.
How to carepack.ie
In summary
- Nursing Home & Care Home Managers sign their residents up with carepack.ie every October (it is free to sign-up and only the person in charge can sign the residents up to receive carepacks).
- carepack.ie gives those resident names out to members of the public through this website (go HERE and follow the steps). There is no cost to getting those details.
- After you receive your resident’s details (screen shot it or write it down immediately as it may autodelete if it goes to spam in your email)
- Then you buy or craft your own gift for your resident. There are generic ideas listed HERE.
- Wrap or package your carepack (we do not provide special packaging – please see FAQ)
- Address your carepack correctly and include the STAFF member’s name (please see FAQ)
- Take to Post Office and post for FREE (if <1kg OR pay post in full if >1kg). Alternatively you can hand-deliver to the Care Home reception desk.
- How-to simple steps on diagram HERE
IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN MIND
- This is a giving initiative run by volunteers with over 20,000 carepacks involved, so please keep in mind that you will not receive confirmation that your carepack was received or that you resident liked your carepack.
- Residents have the opportunity to provide their name when they sign up, many choose to just use their gender or room number. Residents also have the option to include personal information about what they might like in their carepack. If they provided information it is supplied to you with resident details, if you do not receive personal additional information then we recommend choosing some suggestion from the generic ideas list provided HERE.