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At the start of quarter 4 last year, Karen O’Flaherty, Chief Operations Officer here at Morgan McKinley Ireland, challenged a competitive bunch of colleagues to a skydive

The challenge involved competitors setting themselves a goal and if this goal was achieved, a selection process followed.

I had always wanted to do a skydive and couldn’t let this opportunity pass so I set my goal with a few colleagues and luckily became one of the winners; Who at the time, started to regret my submission fairly quickly, but knew I couldn’t back out or I’d never live it down! The date was set and it seemed very far away so I didn’t fret, but then the meetings started and it really hit me! We chose to jump for LauraLynn, Ireland’s only children’s hospice. They do amazing work so we found it fitting to focus our attention on raising much needed funds for this charity. 

The fundraising started with a goal of €1,000 and the final group started to prepare for our dive. Along with the help of HR, we held bake sales, casual Fridays, raffles; All of the usual fundraising activities that Irish people coordinate (we were only short of hosting a lovely girls competition!) We also set up a secure online donation page, this page will remain live until 1st July for anyone who would still like to make a donation.

On Tuesday 21st June, 11 of us made our way to Skydive Ireland in Kilkenny to take the plunge! We spoke, danced and laughed a bit in the car down and continued to check the weather. We spent the day there and went up in the plane in three’s. I would love to give a clear description of the experience and how it felt but firstly, I can’t remember the initial jump – there was a lot of rolling and screaming involved; then once the parachute was deployed I realised one of my contact lenses had fallen out and was just sitting in the goggle… All while trying to look glamorous and somewhat presentable on camera! I got to enjoy half of the view at least! While we all enjoyed it, there were mixed emotions and we all had our own versions of the experience, I am happy to report that no one claimed to have a ‘new lease of life’ after the jump! I would highly recommend it to anyone who is even thinking of doing one.

So far, we have raised a whopping €2,500. We have exceeded our target for LauraLynn and jumping out of a plane was the least we could do for them!! 

Thank you everyone who donated and to Karen and Morgan McKinley for giving us the opportunity to tick skydiving off the bucket list and well done to all of the MMK High Flyers!