The Kindness Postbox has been nominated for an award at The Impartial Reporter Community Champion Awards.

The project was founded by Nuala O'Toole in 2021 and has been incredibly popular throughout County Fermanagh.

It is now manned by a team comprising Wendy Kerr, Holly Clements, Daniel O'Toole and Ms. O'Toole herself.

Ms O'Toole was shocked when she received a phone call from The Impartial Reporter informing her of her nomination. She responded: "Don't tell lies!"

The project will celebrate its third birthday next week and Ms. O'Toole was quick to mention that it is a team effort that keeps the postbox running. 

The Kindness Postbox was nominated by a postal vote via a form from The Impartial Reporter.

Nominating the group, the anonymous nominator said: "The group is a community-focused project based on idea of bringing little burst of happiness to the most isolated and affected by difficult times.

"It started in Enniskillen as a project to give residents of local care homes in lockdown something to smile about by encouraging anyone to get involved to write a cheerful letter.

"Every card, letter, poem or pictures goes a long way to brighten someone's day." 

The nominator said that the work of the Kindness Postbox has inspired and benefitted people in the community.

"This project continues to give to the local community in new ways.  Most recently, the Kindness Postbox was located in the dedicated Children's and Young People's Department [in the ED at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH)]."

Commenting further on this development, Ms. O'Toole said: "We visited the Children's and Young People's A & E [Department] at the SWAH to install the first permanent Kindness Postbox at a Health Care Trust.

"Dr. Stephen Thomas contacted us to see if we could bring a Postbox up, with the idea of it being used not only as a way to distract the children and young people from whatever they're experiencing as a patient.

"The mail from this Kindness Postbox will then be distributed to patients on the wards to bring a little colour into their day."

Nominations are still open for The Impartial Reporter Community Champion awards and will close later on tonight.

You can nominate someone by visiting, www.impartialreporter.com/community-champions/.