Everyone their feet for the “Siege of Ennis” set dance.
The number you’ve been waiting for. It was $60,000, give or take. While the final tally isn’t in, it looks like the 3-month “Save the Irish Center” campaign not only met its goal of $50,000, but exceeded it by about $10,000. That made the final fundraiser of the year—an open house at the center in Philadelphia on Sunday—a celebration.
About 200 people cycled in and out of the center over 6 hours, buying raffle tickets, tasting scone bread, dancing, clapping, and—if you were a kid—getting their faces intricately painted with butterflies, tiger muzzles, or fanciful Celtic designs. The day opened with a full Irish breakfast and the broadcasting of the Sunday Irish Radio Shows from the Fireside Room—named for its big working fireplace–in the rambling center in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of the city.
The campaign was launched following a citywide reassessment that raised the center’s taxes by 800 percent (later, through the help of attorneys from the city’s Brehon Society, an organization of Irish lawyers and judges, reduced to a 300 percent hike) and a notice from the city Board of Health that the kitchen range hood—a $22,000 item—had to be replaced to meet code.
The Center, founded in 1958, makes money as an event hall, taking in about a quarter of a million dollars a year. However, the building is in dire need of maintenance and its size makes it expensive to heat and cool. It is the home of the county societies, the Emerald Society Pipes and Drums, the Delaware Valley Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, and the Cummins School of Irish Dance. Dozens of dancers come each week to learn and practice ceili dancing with instructors John Shields and Cass Tinney and audiences drawn from both within and outside the Irish community attend concerts by top-name and rising traditional musicians brought to the region by the Ceili Group.
A small group of concerned people from all parts of the community and members of the Irish Center board met several months ago at the home of Kathy McGee Burns, president of the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, to come up with a strategy to raise money to get the center over its fiscal crisis and, ultimately, to help it achieve a more secure financial footing for the future. A combination of fundraisers, raffles, a web-based crowd-sourcing campaign via gofundme.com, and a direct mail appeal raised more than $50,000 before Sunday’s final fundraiser, which edged it well over the top. Michael Bradley, director of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, this week pledged $300 to tip the total to and even $60,000.
The first event was a fundraiser at Maloney’s Pub in Ardmore, followed by a Night of Comedy with New York-based, Irish-born comic Mick Thomas and friends, a Quizzo Night at the Irish Center, and, finally, the Irish Center open house.
At the open house, four dance schools—Cummins, Coyle, McDade-Cara, Shades of Green—performed (and many joined in for a center-wide “Siege of Ennis” set dance), along with John and Michael Boyce of Blackthorn with their sister, Karen Boyce McCollum, a member of the fundraising committee, and at least once with their uncle, box player Kevin McGillian; Kathy DeAngelo and Dennis Gormley with two members of their Next Generation group of young trad players, Keegan Loesel and Olivia Lisowski; fiddler Bette Conway; bodhran player Bill Whitman; Irish Center President Vince Gallagher and his band; and the Emerald Society Pipes and Drums.
There were 11 entries in the Irish Philadelphia-sponsored scone-baking contest—judged by Tom Wyatt, Irish Immigration Center Executive Director Siobhan Lyons, and WXPN Kids’ Corner host, Kathy O’Connell—and the winners were: first place, Mary Shea; second place, Bridie Brady; third place, Denise Byrnes; and honorable mention, Jimmy Meehan. Shea, who won $100 for her first-ever scone, donated the money to the Irish Center.
The Irish Coffee Shop of Upper Darby catered the event which was organized by Frank Hollingsworth with other members of the fundraising committee.
This year’s fundraising activities may be at an end, but the campaign is a two-year project and there will be other events in 2015 to help raise an additional $50,000. With the help of the Brehons, the Center’s board is in the process of filing for a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit designation which will help defray some future costs, make it eligible for grants, and allow all donations to be tax deductible.
The fundraising committee is seeking suggestions and recommendations from the Irish community on ways the Center can better respond to your needs. If you have ideas on ways the Center can become more of hub for Irish events in the Philadelphia region, you can send them to us (Jeff Meade, Lori Lander Murphy and I serve on the committee) at either dmfoley1950@gmail.com or irishphilly@gmail.com , or through the website or our Facebook page.
And if you couldn’t be at Sunday’s open house, you can catch a glimpse of some of the fun via our photo essay below, and watch the moments we caught on video.
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