One of the deliveries making its way to a deserving recipient Source: Facebook

A CREDIT UNION in Cork has been surprising local people with gifts to thank them for their work in the community.

Skibbereen and Bandon Credit Union covers a large area in the county, with 25,000 members.

Donal O’Driscoll, CEO of the Skibbereen branch, told TheJournal.ie the union wanted to give back to people in the community who help others.

Donal says the union has previously run community awards, but wanted to do something extra special this Christmas, particularly as the union celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

And so, the Little Big Things Campaign was born, the union’s “way of recognising the fantastic people in our communities who make other people’s lives better through their selfless acts of kindness”.

“We wanted to bring the community together and show that little things can make a big difference,” Donald said.

Credit Union members were asked to nominate people they thought deserved a special ‘thank you’ this Christmas.

Donal said the union got a huge response to the campaign, which wanted to say thanks to “ordinary people doing extraordinary things” and “people who may not have been honoured in the past”.

There are an awful lot of people doing unsung work.

Once someone nominated a person for a prize, the union’s employees worked with them to make sure they could surprise them at their home or workplace.

Donal and others helped to deliver 10 hampers to people this week.

“It’s a nice little token. Everyone likes to be appreciated, so it’s really lovely that these people know they’re appreciated, especially at Christmas time,” he told us.