€308,000 has been raised by participants of this year’s Cannonball.
About 200 supercars motored their way through parts of Ireland across three days, including Kilkenny and Carlow.
Proceeds will go to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
It means the total gathered since the annual event began is now close to €2million.
Fuelled by milesPLUS from Circle K, it’s the largest organised road trip in Europe featuring the finest cars on the planet from the awe-inspiring power of Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren to the grace and elegance of Porsche, Aston Martin, and Maserati.
Founder, Kildare businessman Alan Bannon says; “The figure of €308,000 raised this year for Jack and Jill is very welcome news indeed for all who took part in Cannonball. My very sincere thanks to all of our sponsors, partners, participants, spectators and crew that make up our Cannonball family” said Alan Bannon, Founder of Cannonball
Deirdre Walsh, CEO of Jack and Jill said: “We are blown away by the funds raised this year through our partnership with Cannonball and Circle K, which translates to 16,998 hours of in-home nursing and respite care for 421 families currently supported by Jack and Jill in communities across the country. Great to see the Cannonball community get behind the fundraising effort, including the teams at Apache Pizza who raised €25k, Autoclass who raised €14k and our MC, Podcaster Alan Clarke whose donation drive raised €13k in 24hours! It was fantastic to meet so many of our families along the route, who came out to enjoy the spectacle, and we hugely appreciate all the time, effort, creativity and energy from the Cannonball community that ensured Cannonball 2024 was such a resounding success.”
This year in addition to all of the fundraising activities on Cannonball throughout the weekend including the exciting new ‘Cannonball Fundraising Grand Prix’, Cannonball’s fuel sponsor, Circle K Ireland ran a nationwide campaign entitled, ‘When you fill, support Jack and Jill’, where throughout the weekend of the event, 1 cent from every litre of miles and milesPLUS fuel sold at Circle K was donated to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. Becoming the year’s biggest fundraising initiative for Cannonball and Circle K, it raised €100,000 in critical funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation – the equivalent of 5,555 hours of nursing care for families.
Ciara Foxton, Managing Director of Circle K Ireland commented: ‘We were delighted to bring ‘When You Fill, Support Jack and Jill’ back to sites nationwide last month, after last year’s hugely successful campaign. Partnering with such a popular event like Cannonball generated strong awareness for this year’s initiative, supporting us with raising critical funds for Jack and Jill, a fantastic organisation that makes a big difference to many families in communities nationwide. I would sincerely like to thank Cannonball, colleagues and our customers for supporting the initiative again this year.’
Cannonball was founded by Kildare businessman Alan Bannon and the benefit to the host towns for this event is estimated at €2,567,000 per year. Cannonball was fuelled by milesPLUS from Circle K as the main headline Sponsor for 2024. The Tour Sponsor this year was Apache Pizza and Cannonball official partners included Monster Energy, Jade Insurance, Karl Goodwin Motors, Combilift, Capital Switchgear, Balmaha Limited Food Investments, AB Signs and Majestic Ireland Road Trips.
Many of the participants were back in Kilkenny in recent weeks to help with a guard of honour at the funeral of the late Michael Madden who was a huge supporter of the fundraiser.
