Fortune Automotive has marked each year of business by raising money for charity and to mark five years of business this year, they decided to go big with a skydive.
“We were throwing ideas around and that was one of them so we were like feck it, let’s just do it. It will be a bit of craic hopefully. I’m trying not to think about it too much to be honest!” said Amy Fortune one of the owners of the garage.
Husband and wife duo, Shane and Amy Fortune from Ballygarrett opened Fortune Automotive in Gorey on April 8, 2019. At the time, it was just the two of them but before long, Jeremy Jacobs and Barry Hobbs joined the team.
In previous years, they’ve raised money for LauraLynn and Seal Rescue Ireland.
This year, they’ve chosen to donate to five charities they have personal ties to; The NWSPCA, Meals On Wheels Gorey and Courtown, Ballygarrett Réalt na Mara GAA club, BUMBLEance and The Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
“It’s nice to do it for charity and the more we can raise for them the better. There’s five different ones and most of them are local as well. We’re not taking anything out of those funds either, we’re completely paying for any cost associated with this, we’ll pay for ourselves,” said Amy.
Amy thanked the local community for their support over the last five years. “We owe everything to the local community. We don’t really advertise as such, we have Facebook but we don’t put anything in through people’s doors or pay for ads online, it’s completely through word of mouth and it’s because of them that we’re completely out the door here all the time.”
“Generally we’re always about three weeks to a month out, it’s great but it’s not great in another way because you don’t want to let people down,” said Amy.
Weather permitting, the team at Fortune Automotive hope to complete the jump on Saturday, June 29. This is their first time doing a skydive and they’ll be paired with an instructor on the day.
So far, they’ve raised €947 of their €5,000 target which will be split equally between each charity automatically through the idonate platform. “Every little tiny bit helps, if they can afford €2 that would be perfect,” said Amy.
For more information or to donate, check out their fundraiser at idonate.ie/Fundraiser/FortuneAutomotive/Skydive. You can also donate at their office with cash or card.
