Entrepreneur and parishioner of Magheralin and Dollingstown, Dave Linton, recently found himself sharing brunch with Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson.
Dave founded social bag brand, Madlug (Make a Difference Luggage), in 2015 after discovering that most children in care transport their worldly belongings in bin bags.
The company operates a ‘one for one’ model so that with every bag purchased, one will be given to a child in care.
This summer, Madlug embarked upon an ambitious crowdfunding campaign through Virgin Voom. They were in competition with other start–up companies to raise the most money and win a prize of £1,000 and brunch with Sir Richard.
Madlug set itself an initial target of £10,000 and was leading the competition right up until the very last hour until its competitors received some very large pledges to leave Madlug in 3rd position.
However, this was not the end of the story because earlier this month, Dave did get to have Brunch with Branson and share the Madlug story with him.
Even better, the Crowdfund campaign ran for another 24 days and finished at an incredible total of £24,595.
This money has enabled Madlug to give well over 1000 bags to children in care so that they don’t have to carry their worldly belongings in black bin bags, as is so often the case for the 93,000 young people in care in the UK today.
The bag itself is unbranded to avoid stigma. It folds away to fit neatly into a sock drawer or a Social Worker’s car boot without wasting storage space. And each bag has a label that says “You are incredible” to remind every child that they have value, worth and dignity.
For more info on Madlug go to www.madlug.com
