Spare Change

The boy from Ballymena popped in today. Actor Liam Neeson was in Dublin, not to promote a new movie, but to speak about his work as an official Unicef ambassador. For the past ten years, he's been involved in a rather unique fundraising effort in cooperation with Aer Lingus, and he wanted to thank the Irish people for their generosity.

Called the Change for Good campaign, Unicef Ireland has managed to raise over six million euro to help African children made orphans by HIV/Aids, and Mr. Neeson has been behind them all the way. Clever idea, too, to ask people on long-haul flights if they happen to have any left-over foreign currency that they won't be needing. Say you've just come from visiting family in Wexford town, and you've got a few euro coins jumbling in your pockets. You can't use them for anything, once you land back at LAX, and what good is the money if you drop it in a drawer and forget about it?

On the plane, you'll be given a little envelope to dispose of the loose change, and Aer Lingus turns it over to Unicef Ireland, and then Unicef Ireland does good deeds for little children in Mozambique. Doesn't hurt the donor at all, giving up small bits of money that aren't worth the trouble to exchange back home. It's reported that about half of the airline passengers do indeed donate, small amounts that translate into considerable charity.

There you go. From little acorns, mighty oak trees grow.