“Louth might be the wee county but we have the biggest hearts in Ireland!”
Four years after she started a Facebook group with the hope of encouraging positivity and community engagement, local woman Natalie Kelly has created a force to be reckoned with.
Her Drogheda Dolls group has amassed 15,000 members and has fundraised more than €110,000 for deserving local causes.
“Simple things have really been the most amazing moments for me,” said Natalie, a mum of two who lives in Monasterboice.
She says she has discovered that kindness and generosity is everywhere. “An example is everyone giving two euros each to buy a ‘doll’ a washing machine when she had no money to replace a broken one.”
“Or the private message from a lady saying she had no friends until she joined Drogheda Dolls. People say it’s the first thing they log on to check when they go online because it makes them happy – those things mean the world to me.”
Earlier this year Natalie decided, even though we were all trying to get through another lockdown, to ask people to be kind to each other.
“A lot of people have said to me that the kindness month got them through a very dark time in the height of the pandemic in February and March of this year.”
Natalie has had challenges in her life related to having a rare childhood illness.
“I had several spinal surgeries as a result including having two metal rods that are still attached to my spine.”
She lives with “some degree of pain every single day, some days are worse than others.”
Natalie Kelly from Drogheda Dolls visited the Drogheda Alzheimer Day Care Centre this week with her dad Des McKenna who raised lots of money with his paintings. Natalie and the Drogheda Dolls raised €10,900 to help buy equipment for the new building.
Her health has been more effected by it in the last few years since having children but “I try my best each day to be grateful for all I have.”
“The thing with pain is people think you’re grand as they see you looking okay from the outside, but aside from physical things that can floor you like bad back spasms and regular hospital pain treatment, it can also be so draining mentally.”
She admits she cannot remember a day free from pain in the last few years. This has left her with bad anxiety but also with compassion for others and she has found strength she never knew she had.
It was anxiety and the need for positivity in her life that led her to log onto Facebook in 2017 and it prompted her to take action.
Positivity
“I decided if I couldn’t find positivity, I’d opened a positive group in the hope we could return to times that our grandparents experienced where everyone looked out for each other.”
“Whether that was sharing butter or rallying around your neighbour in need rather than a world where things go too quickly and people can seem like they don’t care.”
“Four years on my opinion has changed. We are enjoying what our grandmothers but through a more modern medium of a Facebook group but the fundamentals are the same.”
“My concept is simple: if we all give a little to those who don’t have much then we all have enough. A kind word also goes a long way too.”
The group has 15,000 members (and growing) and it has evolved into a sisterhood of kindness and good deeds by the Drogheda women and beyond.
In excess of €110,000 raised
“We have raised a huge amount of money in our time together for local people and charities in excess of €110,000 actually, we have carried out thousands of kind acts between us all and have so much positivity and a real community spirit that you can’t beat!”
She says the pandemic has been horrible to everyone but it has brought people together and “especially the women of Drogheda through the Drogheda dolls group. I am proud of my hometown Drogheda and all her amazing people!”
She is also very proud of her hometown of Drogheda and said the fundraising done in the county through the pandemic has been amazing.
“Louth might be the wee county but we have the biggest hearts in Ireland!”
