My name is Stacey Fiat and I own Blissful Wedding Décor. Like many industries, the Wedding Industry was hugely affected by Covid. I was nearly fully booked for 2020 but was left with a handful of Weddings. Instead of dwelling on something I couldn’t control, I decided to put my focus on something good and incredibly rewarding.

Recently I saw on Facebook an article about a nursing home in Co Down asking for people to send letters to their residents. I could see the joy on their faces and it really warmed my heart. After the year we’ve had I wanted to see if anyone in the Republic of Ireland done something similar. I wanted to help more elderly in nursing homes experience this kind of happiness and give them something to look forward to during these very difficult times.

I reached out to Alone Ireland to see if they were aware of any similar initiatives which they weren’t. So I decided to start my own - The Pan Pal Project Ireland. I reached out to some of the local nursing homes in Kildare and when I got my first one on board, I created the Instagram account. Within 3 days we had 5000 followers and over 2500 people signed up to be paired with a Pen Pal.

I wasn’t expecting such a large response in such a short amount of time. We are currently inundated with people looking to be paired up but unfortunately, we can’t get them all paired up as we need more nursing homes on board.

If you work in a nursing home and would like to get involved please email me on info@blissfulweddingdecor.ie Instagram account - www.Instagram.com/penpalprojectireland