Tracey Solicitors use their culinary skills to raise €1000 for The Lighthouse Homeless Outreach.

In a weekly event, dubbed ‘The Great Tracey Bake Off’, which ran from 24^th August 2016 until 30^th November 2016, staff members of Tracey Solicitors got to grips with their kitchens to create some wonderful culinary masterpieces, all in an effort to raise money for the Lighthouse Homeless Outreach. Each Wednesday two members of the Tracey Solicitors Team would battle it out with the aim that their dishes would raise as much money as possible for the charity. Each member of staff made a financial contribution in exchange for trying each entrant’s creations. Paul Tracey, Principal Solicitor, then agreed to triple the funds raised ensure that we could give a rather sizable donation to the charity to help them with their Christmas efforts.

Throughout the 16 weeks our bakers created over 30 different dishes, ranging from sweet to savory and healthy to the type of food that you wouldn’t dream of telling your Gym Instructor about!

Organiser of the event – Aisling Hogan, Solicitor, was especially thrilled at the outcome when she said: “I am delighted that our donation will help The Lighthouse, provide that little bit more and help promote the fantastic work that they do for those who need it during the Christmas Period.”

Over the course of these weeks and with the generous funds added by Paul Tracey we raised €1000, which we donated to The Lighthouse just in time for Christmas to help them through the festive season.

Our finalist, Monika Stupienko and Dominic Gibson (pictured above) pulled out all the stops in one final effort to raise as much as possible. After a very difficult decision we crowned, Monika Stupienko, as our very first Great Tracey Charity Bake Off Queen. Monika was delighted to have won when she said: “I am just so happy that I could do what I love (cooking) to help raise funds for such a fantastic organisation”

About The Lighthouse Homeless Outreach

Located on Pearse Street, Dublin 2, The Lighthouse Homeless Outreach is a drop in centre that opens three days a week to serve hot meals to the homeless and hungry community in Dublin. It is an extension of the Dublin Christian Mission which is proudly bringing hope to the heart of Dublin for the past 185 years! The people that run the centre are volunteers who give up their time to ensure that hot, freshly made meals are provided for free for those who need them. Not only this, but the centre also aims to make genuine connection with those they feed through relationship building and conversation.

The Lighthouse also holds open prayer groups for those interested in receiving prayer and on Saturdays provides people with donations of sleeping bags, clothing and blankets. As well as this, the centre also provides meeting rooms for private and personal discussions and a place for social interaction with visitors and volunteers which they do in form of music lessons and art classes, for example.

Pictured above (from left to right) are Eoin O Tierney, Chief Financial Officer of Tracey Solicitors, Rita Dunphy, Law Clerk for Tracey Solicitors, and active member of The Lighthouse and Joe, a volunteer at The Lighthouse. Upon visiting the drop in centre, Aisling Hogan, Solicitor at Tracey Solicitors and event organiser and Eoin were very kindly given a tour. Aisling summed up her experience by saying: “It was fantastic, bustling with people. You can really feel just how positive and embracing the atmosphere there is, you could tell that the people there were very grateful for the Lighthouse and their efforts and you could tell that the volunteers genuinely cared about the visitors experience at the centre.”

More information on The Lighthouse Homeless Outreach can be found on their website www.dcmlive.ie.

Here are some pictures for those of you who might be interested to feast your eyes on some of the delicious deserts and culinary expertise of the Tracey Solicitors staff!