Newsletter

Considering the majority of the “snowbirds” had already departed from sunny Florida, the club had a great turn out at the Social held on May 7^th at the Elks. The entertainment by “The Boys of County Lee” was wonderful. Bud & Angie Martin celebrated their 49^th anniversary at the social. Congratulations to both of them! Our next general meeting will be Wednesday, September 9^that the Elks Lodge beginning at 7pm. More details to follow.

The board members of the club are working diligently to plan events during the summer. The information from the survey indicated there can be many options that club members would like to participate in. The majority of members who live in Florida permanently indicated they would like a potluck. The July event planned is a picnic at the Yacht Club Pavilion located at 5819 Driftwood Parkway on Saturday, July 11^th. The picnic begins at 2pm. The board members will be the chefs. Meat will be provided by the club. We only ask that each family bring a dish to pass. It is a BYOB. You may consume alcohol in the pavilion only. So if you would like an alcoholic drink, please provide it for yourself. Mark your calendar and plan on spending the day. There will be some great fun. The beach and the children’s area are also available. If you did not sign-up at the social, please call Tiny at 540-5620 or George at 541-2084 with your reservation and the number attending. We need to get a count so we have enough food. Information about other events will be sent to you as plans are finalized.

The club is participating in the Red, White and Boom event on July 4^th. We had a new club banner made since a smaller sized banner was required for the event. The banner will be displayed at the celebration. The banner can then be used for future advertising since it will have the dates of the festival which can be changed every year. If you do go to the fireworks display, please look for our banner.

Just a reminder---The 6^th Annual Irish Festival will take place March 6^th & 7^th, 2010 at the Bavarian Gardens of the GASC. Please mark your calendar for that weekend. We will NEED every member of the club to volunteer for that weekend. We plan on having the trip to Ireland Raffle again. The proceeds from the raffle actually paid for all the entertainment at the 5^th Annual Fest. We would like to do the Ad/Program Booklet again for next year’s festival. The proceeds from the ad book helps pay many expenses incurred before the fest even starts. We do need volunteers for this project. Cape Coral is a large city and cannot be adequately covered by only three volunteers. We begin selling ads in October and would like to have the booklets available for the Caloosa Celtic Festival on January 23, 2010. The club will continue to be very visible prior to the festival including our attendance at the Celtic Fest, the C.C. Farmers Market, the Sunset Celebrations and the wearing of our safety green festival t-shirts. Anne Carney will continue to handle our festival publicity.

The 2009 Festival was a great success! This year’s fest income was over $67,000. Profit from the festival was $34,000. We have already given to eleven charities in Florida. Ten of the charities are in SW Florida and of those eight charities are in Cape Coral or Ft. Myers area. Please support the businesses that purchased ads in our 2008 Ad/Program Book. If you are able to support them by buying their service or going to their restaurant, please let them know you saw the ad in the Irish ad book. It will be much easier to sell ads next year.

Our April meeting had 63 members present. We had fourteen new members present. They included Dennis & Mary Fogarty, Dave & Marion McKenzie, Tera & Tiffany Wason, David Ennis, Carole Kember, Mary Shay, Mary & Paul Ryan, Jim Martin & Robert Crowe. Finbarr Corr, author & guest speaker gave an enlightening talk on St. Patrick and his influence on the Irish culture. Our collection of food for the Cape Coral Caring Center netted 67 pounds of non perishable food. Thank you to all who contributed!

Our next event is an Irish Club Social which will take place on Thursday, May 7^th. We will meet at the Elks which is located @ 4631 SE 10^th Place . All are invited to come early and enjoy dinner before the social which begins at 6pm. The cost of dinner is between $5 and$7.50 depending on what you order. Remember, if 12 people from our club dine before our social, the rental of the meeting room is free. This is a time to meet, greet, & get to know other members of the club. We will have live Irish entertainment---The “Boys of County Lee ”. This is not a meeting! Another event taking place on April 25^th at St. Kathryn Drexel is the K.C. Dinner. The dinner starts at 5pm with a donation of $15. Entertainment is being provided by the Cape Coral High School Jazz Band. Contact Tiny Conaton at 540-5620 for additional information.

If you are in town, mark your calendars for Saturday, July 11^th. A potluck picnic is planned. A sign-up sheet will be available at the May 7^th social or call George Miller at 541-2084 if you plan on coming. Plans are in the works for other summer activities for those members who are full time residents of Florida . We do have a survey we would like you to fill out if you did not do it at the April meeting. We would like to know what activities you would like to see occur in our club. We also need to know in what areas you would like to volunteer--both for the festival & for the committees needed to steer the club in the right direction. A successful club is dependent upon its members. We want our club to grow and as our guest speaker, Finbarr Corr, said about the Irish “Our best years are but to come”. That should also be our philosophy. Presently we have 150 families who are members of our club. We can be strong. Please help!

Several individuals have already signed up for the Celtic Women Concert. It is a new show—not seen before. If you would like to attend, please call Tiny Conaton. Information listed below.

The Luck of the Irish was with us on March 7th & 8th. Our festival success was beyond our wildest dreams. God granted us two beautiful days! The club would like to thank the 93 volunteers who with their dedication and hard work made the festival the success it became! Our club has grown by 45 new families who have joined over the festival weekend plus the 21 families who had joined since January ’09. WELCOME ALL!

Our next general meeting and our last meeting for the season is Thursday, April 2nd. We meet at the Elks which is located @ 4631 SE 10th Place. All are invited to come early and enjoy dinner before the meeting begins at 7pm. The cost of dinner is between $5 and$7.50 depending on what you order. Remember if 12 people from our club dine before our meeting, the rental of the meeting room is free. Our guest speaker for the meeting is author, Finbarr Corr. He will discuss St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland and the reason there is a celebration on March 17th. We are asking for donations of non perishable food to give to the Cape Coral Caring Center. This is a charity that donates food only to those people in need who live in Cape Coral. After the “snowbirds” leave the caring center is in dire need of donations.

On Thursday, May 7th the club will be having a “social”. We will be meeting at the Elks at 7pm. This is a time to meet, greet, & get to know other members of the club. We will have live Irish entertainment. Come early for dinner and then enjoy your time socializing. This is not a meeting!

Wishing you a rainbow for sunlight after showers---
Miles and miles of Irish smiles for golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway for luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends each day your whole life through!

~Irish Blessing

We had a great meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 11th. Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, March 5th at the Elks beginning at 7pm. You are always welcome to have dinner at the Elks before the meeting. Dinner is served from 5 to 7pm. As of now our meetings will be on the first Thursday of the month unless there is a holiday.

Because of the festival taking place in March, no outside event has been planned for the month. Our next event will be Saturday, April 4, 2009. There is a show presented by Knights of Columbus beginning at 7pm at Cape Coral High School. The entertainment is Suzi Cruz, an impressionist singer, and comedian Timothy Hawkins. The cost is $12 per person. If you would like to attend please call 540-2161 for reservations. On Thursday, May 7th, we will have our last “get together” for the season. We will be meeting at the Elks at 6pm. Dinner will be available as usual. Come join us and get to know the other members in our club.

The festival is fast approaching. Hopefully you have seen advertising about our event. The week before the fest the event will be advertised both on TV and in the newspaper. Please tell your family and friends about the fest and encourage them to come. We need help on Saturday, March 7th at 8am to set up. It will only take about one hour. If you could help out, please call 542-5622. All festival volunteers will receive a copy of the schedule which confirms exactly when they will be working. If you have not volunteered but would still be able to help, please call Bud at 542-5622. If you have any empty toilet or paper towel rolls, please bring them to the next meeting. Some families have donated bottles of alcohol for our “Basket of Cheer Raffle”. We would like to make a basket for each day and are still in need of more bottles. If you would be able to donate a bottle please call 540-2161 and we will arrange to pick it up. The Trip to Ireland Raffle tickets, whether sold or unsold, MUST be turned in by February 28th. Please call 540-2161 if you would like to drop them off or put them in the mail with a check made out to the Cape Coral Irish American Club. We need to get a count of the number of tickets available for selling at the festival.

Twenty-three families have renewed their 2009 membership. With the exception of charter members the last date to renew your 2009 membership is March 31st. After that date your name will be removed from our records