Person of the Year 2009 award!

I was absolutely chuffed to bits to find out that I got voted as Boyle Person of the year 2009! It's a great honour to have won this local award which has been in existence for the past seventeen years.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the ceremony, which was held in the Royal Hotel, Boyle on Friday 5th Feb, due to a Poker fundraiser that I was running for the Haiti earthquake victims.
2009 was a very special year for me. As some of you know, I spent the first three months of 2009 in East Africa, working in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda as an independent volunteer with my girlfriend Florence Murphy.
Together we worked in orphanages and schools helping in any way we could, the details of which can be read in earlier posts of my blog.
To have had the opportunity to experience African life the way we did is something very special, and indeed something in which we both wanted to do.
Towards the end of 2009, I wanted to try and raise funds for the homeless, so together with the Galway Simon community I organised a "sleep out" night on the 18th December.
This sleep out night basically meant that volunteers would stay/sleep outside from 8pm until 8am the following morning. This project was a huge success and we ended up raising €3500 in a very short period. We got great support from the people of Boyle not only on the night itself, but also throughout the fundraising campaign.
For this sleep out project, I would like to thank each and every one of the people who helped me not only fund raise, but also took part in the sleep out. The freezing -5 degree conditions of that December night meant that it was not an easy task by any means.
I only got the ball rolling with the sleep out, so without the kind help of the other fourteen volunteers, it would not have been as successful as it was.
We plan to hold another sleep out night in December 2010, in which we hope will have more volunteers sleeping out and to raise even more money for the Homeless.
Ciao!

Haiti Poker Fundraiser

Four of A Kind Poker(myself), in association with the Haven trust NGO and three other poker companies, namely Mayo Poker Tour, Shamrock Poker Tour and Shuffle up and deal Poker, are co-hosting a massive poker night fundraiser on Feb 5th in Yeats County Inn, Curry, Co.Sligo at 8pm. Details of the Tournament can be found above on the poster.
Haven is beginning to build sanitation facilities in some of the temporary camps which have sprung up around Port au Prince following the earthquake on Jan 12th 2010.
The Haven trust, which is the only Irish NGO operating solely in Haiti, has been part of the emergency response since the devastating quake hit two weeks ago.
At the end of April this year, Haven will send 250 volunteers out to Haiti to take part in a "built it week" when the volunteers will help rebuild the homes of those devastated by the earthquake.
Its this "build it week" that the funds from the Poker Night Fundraiser will go towards. 30% of the total prizepool on the night will be donated towards the Haven trust, leaving a generous 70% to be paid out in the poker tournament.
If your never played Texas Hold'em poker, then what better reason to start? If you do play poker, then what better reason to play?
Naturally we are running this event free of charge. We are expecting a minimum of 60-70 players turning up.
We also will have musical entertainment, food and spot prizes provided for on the night to make it as enjoyable as possible.
Your support on the night will go along way to helping Haiti get back on its feet!
Ciao!

Sleepout Result and thank you!

I would like to extend a sincere word of thanks both from me and from the thirteen others who took part in the sleep out, to everyone who donated to this project. It was a very worthwhile event. I am delighted to report, now that all the money has been received and counted, that a total of €3,559 was raised!!
Our target starting out was to get €1000 raised for the Galway Simon Community, so its fantastic to have raised as much as we did. As I said, I want to thank all those who made the effort to go out and get donations. Also, on the night of the sleep out, we got great support from the locals here in town. A special word of thanks to Brian Lynch from Spar, who provided us all with complimentary tea, coffee's and sandwiches up until 10:30pm and also to my mother, Mary Cretaro, who provided us with the soup run. A few other words of thanks to AnsaMed, Sean O Dowd, and Janice Roddy from the Una Bhan office who helped greatly with getting this project advertised as best as possible.
Its given us a great platform to build upon for next year's sleep out. More people hopefully will be interested in getting involved and we will try to raise as much as we can to help the homeless situation.
We only did a twelve hour overnight sleep out, in which at the end we could go home to a nice warm bed. Unfortunately, thats a choice that over 5,000 men, women and children in this country do not have the luxury of making.
Again, thanks from the sleep out gang and Happy new year.
Ciao!