Portarlington Jigs and Reels 2014
Portarlington Jigs and Reels 2014
Photo By Con Murphy
The Portarlington Community Development Association ran its wonderful ‘Jigs & Reels’ event on Sunday October 26th in the Heritage Hotel Killenard. Each couple on the night received €200 towards a Charity/Club of their choice & the winning couple Stuart Mulpeter & Shona Mooney received €1,000 for theOncology unit at Tullamore hospital.
This event apart from helping PCDA, also helped many other charities. Also €500 on the night for a raffle held went to the Ben & Jake fundraiser.
The event had great support again from the local community, as well as a huge number of businesses. PCDA would like to thanks all the dancers, sponsors, the Heritage Hotel and Kara Burbrage (dance teacher) for all their support and hard work for this event to go ahead. It could not have happened without the support of the Portarlington community so thank you all from the PCDA.
On the night there was a wonderful surprise for everyone. When an Irish/American visitor Meg McCauley who was staying in the hotel came in to have a good night of entertainment, was so moved by what the people of Portarlington were doing to help their community and other charities that she offered to donated $53,000 to charity.
Meg McCauley’s originally for Roscommon and has her own company in Boston called Compassionate Irish care which provides end of life care for the elderly. She is a very successful business woman. She was very moved by what she heard and saw at the Jigs & Reels event. So on the night offered to donation of $53,000 to charity. Portarlington Community Development Association is still in shock after receiving her generous donation.
Meg asked Laura Scallon (Chairperson for PCDA) and Margaret Lawler Behan (who danced for Hope D) to meet with her on Monday night in Dublin so she could give them cheques for their charities.
It was decided by Meg on the Monday night that the $50,000 she offered on the night would be better halved, which is amazing. As she felt it was a very large sum for one charity to handle. She donated $25,000 to Margaret Lawlor Behan’s charity Hope (D) which had inspired her to give the donation of $50,000 in the first place and gave the other $25,000 to the Portarlington Community Development Association. Both Margaret Lawler Behan and Laura Scallon (chairperson for PCDA) are both very grateful to Meg for her wonderful generosity and want to thanks her from the bottom of their hearts.
Meg asked that $3000 goes to the winners on that night charity which was Stuart Mulpeter & Shona Mooney and their charity is the Oncology unit Tullamore hospital.
Photo: Tara Walsh, Rory Walsh, Meg Mc McCauley, Margaret Lawlor Behan, Laura Scallon Chris Lawlor Behan, Aidan O’Reilly
Meg has also said she would like to help Portarlington Community Development Association further and will come back for a visit to meet the board of directors in November. PCDA are delighted to have Meg as a patron for the town of Portarlington.