Friday, April 1, 2016
President's Message April 2016
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
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| Division One President Kevin Ellis |
April 2016
Brothers,
That big rush of wind we are all hearing is a collective exhale after our Division has once again finished a tremendously successful St. Patrick’s Day Parade Season! I cannot express in words how proud I am of the entire membership and how all of you responded to the call to celebrate St. Patrick while marching with pride and dignity. We once again were able to participate in 4 parades in a 7 day span! Your dedication and loyalty is what sets the AOH and the Yonkers Division apart! Photos and videos have been posted on this site and I invite all of our members to check them out.
Now that the month of March is behind us, it is now time to begin the second busy month of activities that will culminate with our Annual Charity Golf Outing on May 9th. I want to quickly run down what is on the schedule for the month of April.
First up is the benefit for our member Jimmy Casey on Saturday, April 2nd. The event will be held at Danny Mac’s from 3pm-8pm and I invite all of you to come out and lend support to a great Hibernian who has suffered a tremendous injury. I know the entire membership was shocked when we were informed of Jimmy’s accident at our last meeting, and we have pledged not only to support this benefit, but we will stand with Jimmy and he faces this difficult new chapter in his life. Together, we will show that the AOH takes care of its own!
Division #1 will present The City of Yonkers with a large framed copy of The Irish Proclamation of Independence at the City Council Meeting that is scheduled for April 12th. This will be our local commemorative effort to mark the 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising on behalf of the Irish Community in Yonkers and I hope many of our members will be able to attend this important ceremony.
The next event will be the AOH Westchester County Dinner Dance that will be held at The DoubleTree Hilton Hotel in Tarrytown on April 16th. The Honorees are Tim Pat Coogan and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Thomas Foley. Our Division has already pledges for a table and an ad, however we ask the membership to help get a second table as the County Board needs our support. We will discuss this further at our membership meeting on April 6th.
Next, The AOH National Board will hold its official commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising with a mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on Saturday, April 23rd at 1:00pm. There will be a grand procession from the cathedral to the Irish Consulate building on Park Avenue, where the Proclamation will be read aloud and there will be special after events scheduled in local establishments that evening. We will be arranging a bus once again to take our members to and from the event so please RSVP to us as soon as possible so appropriate arrangements can be made. Further details will be provided at our membership meeting.
Is your head spinning at this point? We are not done yet! I will then be attending the AOH New York State Board meeting that will be held in East Durham the weekend of April 29 thru May 1. I encourage any members to make the effort to attend as this meeting is only held twice a year and covers many important topics.
We then face the challenge of hosting our 20th Annual Charity Golf Outing at the Ardsley Country Club on May 9th. As many of you know, this event is the primary fundraiser for our Division each year. The proceeds make sure that we can perform the duties and functions of our order throughout the year. Hole Sponsors are an absolute necessity to make this event a success. It is expected of every member to at least sponsor a hole at this event. We are also asking everyone to make an effort to bring in additional hole sponsors as we will attempt to surpass last years record breaking achievement! Please remember to bring your donated items for our raffle gift baskets to our meeting on April 6th.
We also will need to discuss The AOH national Convention in Atlantic City this coming July, but I think we can leave that to May. (Maybe)
And you thought March was a busy month!? 2016 is a very special year and thus the events are many. I know I can count on all of you to help make our Division successful in anything we set our minds to! Let’s finish out our busy season with a successful effort!
Yours in our Motto,
Kevin Ellis, President
Division #1, Yonkers
