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Help the AOH Make a Stand for Children With Autism

As many of you are aware, several members of the Hibernian and Irish American community have been at the forefront of the cause to find a cure for autism. Speaker of the House Representative Dennis OBrien has been solidly leading the fight, and the folks at Autism Speaks donate time, funding and resources unselfishly time and time again.

They now need our help. We have done it before, we will do it again. Contact your local Senator and let him or her know of this bill and your support of it.

We all know we need more veterans programs, we all know we need a process for the undocumented Irish, and we all know we need to support these children. Please take a moment to drop your Senator an email or phone call and remind them that the Irish community stand united for veterans, for the undocumented Irish and for children with Autism.

HB 1150, which will end autism insurance discrimination by providing the children in the state of Pennsylvania with access to the medically necessary, evidence based treatments and therapies that they need, is once again in need of your attention. Following an extremely successful hearing in April, we hit a little road block and need your help to push through that!

Senator White still isn’t convinced that this issue should go to a vote. He needs some help. He needs to hear from YOU through YOUR Senator that this is an issue that is important to you. Please do not call him directly unless you live in his district! We are sending Don White’s constituents a separate alert.

The nation has its eyes on Pennsylvania to provide the community here with the most comprehensive autism insurance reform to date. As you know, other states such as Arizona and Florida passed similar legislation earlier this spring.

HB 1150 HAS BEEN HELD HOSTAGE IN DON WHITE’S COMMITTEE FOR NEARLY ONE YEAR! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE for OUR COMMUNITY!

It is time for the Keystone State of Pennsylvania…to become the cornerstone and PASS THIS BILL!

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

1. CALL YOUR OWN SENATOR! Ask your Senator to speak to Senator Don White and ask him to allow HB 1150 go to a vote in his committee. For information on how you can find out who your senator is, visit www.autismvotes.org and view the resources section.

2. CALL SENATE LEADERSHIP! Ask these Senators to speak to Senator Don White and ask him to allow HB 1150 to go to a vote in his committee. NOTE: If you are their constituents, please be sure to let them know how much you are counting on them to make this happen!

Senator Dominic Pileggi

717-787-4712 (Harrisburg Office) OR 610-565-9100 (For Constituents!)

Senator Joe Scarnatti

717-787-7084 (Harrisburg Office) or 814-726-7201 (For Constituents)

3. It is time for the state of Pennsylvania to make some noise! We are challenging everyone to involve family members, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, friends, co-workers, therapists, physicians and anyone who lives in the state of Pennsylvania – that would take FIVE minutes to make these phone calls to THEIR Senator and the Senate leaders in # 2 above to end insurance discrimination and get your child(ren) the coverage they deserve.

Six other states have accomplished this! Pennsylvania can be next in line if we FOCUS!

June 2, 2008 by
News

Camden Catholic Gets Jersey’s Irish Jumping

Mike O'Callaghan, banging the drum loudly.

Mike O'Callaghan, banging the drum loudly.

For the longest time, Jacob Griess was the only one on the dance floor. But he’s a toddler, and toddlers have no inhibitions.

But then Blackthorn took to the stage at the first Camden Catholic Irish Festival, and Jacob soon had plenty of company.

It was billed as a HUGE (all caps) Irish Festival, and,with more than 400 South Jersey Irish on hand, the description was apt.

Like most Irish festivals, it featured performances by Irish dancers and pipers, booths stocked with Irish hoodies and hats and such, and big steaming plates of ham and cabbage.

Of course, the big draw was Blackthorn. And even though it was a litle chilly in the big tent out behind the gym, the band soon hotted things up.

It was all music to the ears of Dennis “Archie” Archible, president of the school alumni association, class of ’74.

“This is going to be an annual event,” he said. “We have over 400 here today. We’re hoping to grow to over 1,000.”

Most if the revelers at Camden Catholic on Saturday are alumni, Archible said. A number of alumni also donated to the cause, he added, including beer and food. “It’s nice,” he said, “when it’s home-grown.”

The festival came together pretty quickly. Archible said it was first discussed following the school’s 120th anniversary in October. But the basic idea for the festival, he said, “has been inside my head for a long time.”

Proceeds of the event will help pay for bleachers and for improvements to the football field. As with most Catholic schools, tuition does not pay all of the school’s bills. Archible had no doubt that his fellow alumni would rise to the challenge. “We’re the oldest Catholic high school in South Jersey,” he said, “and the tradition is tremendous.”

April 24, 2008 by
Sports

Fighting Irish 5K Off and Running on St. Patrick’s Day

Editor’s note: The 5K was postponed due to inclement weather.

It’s a testimony to the hardiness of runners that on the bitterest of March mornings last year—a day so blustery and cold that no one but a runner would set foot outdoors, and certainly not in shorts—they gathered by the hundreds to race in the 4th Annual Fighting Irish 5K in Chestnut Hill.

It is a testimony as well to talents of Frank McGuire and fellow members and friends of the University of Notre Dame Alumni Club of Philadelphia that, on that day, the race raised the most money in its brief history. The beneficiary of that $30,000 check? St. Malachy’s Parish School in North Philadelphia. Since the race’s inception, the club has raised close to $90,000 for the school.

The race is on again, this time on St. Patrick’s Day—Saturday, March 17. Eight hundred runners and a hundred walkers pounded the streets of Chestnut Hill last year. The club is hoping it can do even better, both in number of participants and funds for St. Malachy’s.

“The race just keeps on growing,” says McGuire, a 1980 graduate (marketing) of the University of Notre Dame. Considering the level of organization that goes into the event, perhaps that’s not surprising. McGuire and his volunteers start planning in September. “The last two weeks before the race, it becomes something like a full-time job.”

Runners have a chance at the usual competitive laurels, and that’s fine. But race organizers go out of their way to sweeten the pot. This year, participants are automatically entered in a drawing for two free golf vacation packages in Ireland, courtesy of McGuire’s brother-in-law Eamonn Kennelly, owner of Golf Vacations Ireland. There’s also a bit of entertainment, with music provided by a band of pipers.

The race was the brainchild of McGuire, a runner himself. “I’ve been running about 15 years,” he says. “It just started as a way of working out. Soon I was running 5Ks and 10Ks. I went through a period where I ran in 15 marathons. I’ve done Boston five times.”

As for the beneficiary, St. Malachy’s became the choice early on. “At the time, I was the chair of community service for the club. I was looking for a sizeable project for us to do,” he says. “We thought about St. Malachy’s because it’s a grade school and parish that doesn’t take money from the (Philadelphia Catholic) archdiocese. They survive on donations alone.”

For Maguire, there could hardly be a more worthy recipient. “There are about 210 kids who go to the school,” he says. “Only 15 of them are Catholic. It’s an oasis in a troubled neighborhood.”

If you want to run (or set a more leisurely pace in the 1K walk) and help a worthy cause, the race starts at 9 a.m. on West Willow Grove Avenue in Chestnut Hill, in front of Chestnut Hill Academy. Registration begins at 7:45. Pre-registered runners and walkers can pick up their race packets on race day or on Friday, March 16, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Chestnut Hill Hotel, 8229 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill. The registration fee is $18 (for pre-race registration postmarked by March 7), and $25 on the day of the race.

For more details, visit the race Web site.

Volunteers also are needed.

March 4, 2007 by