In his latest attempt to raise funds and give back to the community, long-standing Simon Community supporter Vincent Butler is running a wonderful initiative that is set to benefit schools across Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon, as well as those facing homelessness in these difficult times.

Vincent is calling on you to donate what you can in support of Galway Simon services. For every €10 received, the renowned archaeologist, educator, and heritage specialist will gift a copy of his captivating book Sixty Photographs for Simon to a local school here in the West. So not only will your donation support those at risk of, or experiencing homelessness during this critical time of need, but it will also help our young students who have recently experienced so much uncertainty and disruption due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The book contains a compilation of 60 stunning photographs that Vincent has taken during his long career as an expert historian and guide, on cruises and expeditions across the world encompassing the Arctic, Scandinavia, Europe, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Asia. Information-rich, the book is a valuable teaching resource brim-full of material for projects and classwork.

There are 586 schools across Galway, Mayo & Roscommon and Vincent is hoping to gift a copy to every single one of them.

Every Euro counts. The Sahara Desert covers an area of around 3.5 million square miles. It began with a single grain of sand!

To support this wonderful initiative please click the Register button to make a donation now.

About Vincent and the Beginning of the Project

Vincent was part of a group that went on a hiking expedition to the Sahara in aid of Dublin Simon Community in 2000.  He has a background in archaeology but was finding it hard to get work at the time.  The group he was in happened across a prehistoric site which Vincent pointed out and explained to the group.

After this, he was approached by one of the tour operators and offered a job as an expert guide.  Since then he has spent his time traveling the world in chartered expeditions and cruises, where he took thousands of photos in the places he visited.

In 2018, in recognition of his life-changing moment in the Sahara desert, Vincent acted on a longing he had for some time to give something back and set about producing this stunning book that he funded, designed, and produced himself. 100% of sales proceeds directly benefit the Simon Communities of Ireland. To date, he has raised over €50,000 and has gifted €18,000 of this to Galway Simon to fund the annual cost of our Client Involvement & Wellness Programme.