Dear Members,

Welcome 2020! A year to be THANKFUL.

This year marks our 45 YEARS on 45th AVENUE. Please mark your calendar – April 25th, 2020 to honor the celebration.

THANK YOU to our amazing team at the CENTER- Ligia, Angela, Marvin, Mina. We are grateful to your dedication.

THANK YOU to Maureen and Adrian Kelly and their team with Knights Catering for our incredible partnership in 2019 and our continued alliance in 2020.

THANK YOU to our instrumental volunteers who continue to amaze me with their wholeheartedness and commitment to the Center. YOU know who you are and I hope you know the importance of all that you do!

THANK YOU to our entertainment team – Mark and Molly Burke, Liam Reidy and Josephine Brogan- we are excited about what 2020 will bring to the Center.

THANK YOU to our board: to the members that will be departing our board – Michael Barnacle, Michael Bowler, Peggy Nevin and Rebecca Moran and to those that will remain and continue to support the Center. As we know, it is a labor of love.

THANK YOU to our patrons – we learned a lot this year and hope that we will be given a 2nd chance to wow you more in 2020!

The board would like to say a big THANK YOU to all who supported the Center by attending events, paying membership dues and making donations. Donations big or small -every dollar counts.

I especially would like to take a moment to THANK Joanne Hayes White, who had her retirement party at the UICC. In doing so, the UICC received $30,000 in donations. We were able to add cameras, begin our IT updating, restore minor issues and create a much needed wish list.

This year, the Center received two checks from the Irish Government, ESP $12,000 for cultural programming and $5,000 for IT support. This is the first time the Center received grant money to aid projects in the Center. We are grateful to Robert O’Driscoll, Michael Treacy, Elizabeth Creely and Noeleen Pattison for their unwavering encouragement to the Center.

On December 14th, Kathleen Dowling McDonagh and Kevin McDonagh donated over 200 bottles of their delicious olive oil and 100% of the proceeds went to the library. All bottles were sold out in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Her amazing sisters, family, friends and library team sold raffle tickets and duplicate library books. The one day event brought in $9k to support the library. A huge THANK YOU to Kathleen and team!

In addition, a big THANK YOU to Valerie, Jennifer and the library team for acquiring a $10,000 check from the Gellert Foundation to support modernization in the library. AND they raised over $12k from their raffle to support our new librarian Jennifer Drennan.

The Emerald Society made a donation to support IT as well, to help with our meeting/gathering venue upgrades. We are THANKFUL for their kindness and generosity.

THANK YOU to the clubs, organizations and Irish partners that continue to collaborate with the Irish Center.

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro

Kind regards and here’s to a happy, healthy and robust 2020!

Anne Cassidy Carew, President of the United Irish Cultural Center