Hi everyone
The day after attending Irish Day of Action last Saturday, The Limerick Society of New York held a fundraiser in Manhattan for Hurricane Sandy victims. Although we had a small turnout, we were still able to raise $1295 for victims of the Hurricane ( and we’re still receiving donations as we speak).
Held at the The Irish Rogue (now renamed Harley’s), the Manager Bernice Hughes and her staff certainly know how to take care of their customers. The food was great, and included traditional Irish shepherd’s pie (which was up there with the best of them including PD O’Hurley’s ‘world renowned’ shepherd’s pie!), Irish sausages, chicken and vegetables, and all provided at a very reasonable price. The band was also great, and had played earlier in the week at another Hurricane Sandy fundraiser at the Irish Repertory Theatre.
We are very grateful to everyone for their very generous contributions, in particular Maurice Foley and the Cement and Concrete Workers Union, Local 18A.
We can now leverage these funds using economies of scale provided by MaidPro, who will get us supplies at discounted rates. We will add additional value by bringing supplies directly to Hurricane Sandy victims, therefore utilizing 100% of proceeds for the benefit of victims i.e. no program, administrative or fundraising expenses. Smaller sometimes is much better!
By participating in Irish Day of Action last Saturday, the Limerick Society is now better prepared to offer further support over the coming weeks to Hurricane victims. It was an inspiring day! Having been warmly greeted by the Consul General and Deputy Consul Deputy, Hon. Noel Kilkenny and Hon. Peter Ryan respectively, we left the Park Ave. bus pick up location at around 7am, and headed down to the Rockaways. We traveled by school bus (so much for a nice little snooze on the way down :D) which for many of us was our first (and last hopefully!) time on a U.S. school bus, and was a lot of fun.
How did the day progress and what activities did we get involved in?
We arrived in the Rockaways at around 8.30am, and started working straight away cleaning up the neighborhood sidewalks. From there we split up, and a group of us were brought to the house of one of New York’s Bravest, where we helped clean up the basement and did some demo work.
After a few hours there, we went to another house to shovel sand from the garden. It belonged to an older lady who was delighted to see us. She was doing a lot of the shoveling herself, and was a great character! Ailbhe Mullen from the IIBN.com was already there helping coordinate the effort.
We saw lots of other volunteers from other Irish and non-Irish organizations, and all of us were warmly welcomed in the area. It was amazing to see how far inland the water came, measured by the sand deposits on roads, footpaths, and in front gardens. It was also amazing to think that had you been standing on one of the neighborhood roads at the height of the tide, the water would have been well over your head. Basements were not just flooded but were filled to the roof and beyond with water. The sea and waves came so far inland.
Representatives from many Irish organizations were present on the day including the New York Irish Center, IIBN, IBO, IN-NYC, Irish Arts Center, Aisling Irish Community Center, Emerald Isle Immigration Center, United Irish Counties Assoc., County Societies, AOH, PD O’Hurleys, the Irish Examiner USA, the Irish Voice, NY University of Limerick Alumni, New York Pan-Alumni Group, GAA and many others. (see Failte32.org news/events section for their upcoming events)
Feedback from one of the Limerick members and Meitheal Volunteer, John Dallaire (Managing Director of MaidPro
www.maidpro.com/manhattan )
Therefore, the we’re going to carry on in the spirit of Irish Day of Action and use the proceeds from our fundraiser to purchase supplies for the treatment of mold, and hire or borrow a box truck to carry the supplies to the hard hit areas. We will divide up supplies into homemade kits (MaidPro’s idea!), which we will hand out door to door while showing recipients the correct procedure for mold treatment (provided to us by FEMA). The plan is to purchase enough supplies to treat approx. 100+ homes, which goes to show you that a lot can be achieved with very little.
If there are any J1’ers free to help out on the day, please let us know. It would be great to have a few volunteers accompany us on the day, probably mid-December. If you’re looking for a job, we might even be able to hook you up with somebody.
Additionally, we recently met a young French lady, Lorelai Germain, who is a student at Columbia Journalism School covering the Irish community. She would like to do an article on Irish immigrants in NY, and some research on employment/visas in New York. She would like to speak with one or two people who are from Ireland, moved recently to New York and are trying to find a job or who just found one. If you’re interested, please let us know and we’ll put you in touch.
Kind regards
Maurice Landers – President Limerick Society NY/ Failte 32 Committee
