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| Eoin Costello presents the receipts from the 1999 Scrap Gold Week to Columba Faulkner, National Secretary of St. Vincent De Paul. |
Scrap Gold Week
When I was manager of Costello Jewellers Cornelscourt customers occasionally
asked me what they could do with single earrings or chains that were damaged
beyond repair. My reply was to collect the pieces until they had enough
to make something out of them.
I was a member of the Monkstown branch of St. Vincent de Paul at the time and an idea struck me. If we collected all the damaged and worn pieces of jewellery people didn't want, we could give it to a refiner who would give us a cheque for St. Vincent De Paul.
Thus in 1997, I began the first Scrap Gold Week. We took in approximately £450 worth of scrap gold. In 1998 the Scrap Gold Week took in nearly £2,000 pounds in scrap gold. Then in 1999 when all late items that arrived in the post were added up the Scrap Gold Week raised over £7,000!
In January 2000 when I sold my jewellery business in Cornelscourt to
develop an Internet business I was anxious that the Scrap Gold Week idea
would not die. I entered discussions with St. Vincent De Paul Headquarters.
They were delighted to take on the idea and ran it very successfully in
May of 2000." Eoin Costello