Dublin AM Rotary Volunteers Rock Irish Fest
Can you still hear the flutes and bagpipes? Still smell the corned beef or taste the stout?
Are you waking up in the night with terror as you hear Dave Williamson barking orders at you on your radio?
What about Michael Blackwell sporting the kilt? Is that keeping you awake at night? (Or was it Dave Williamson that was wearing the kilt?)
Are you driving like a madman down Coffman Road thinking you're still on a golf cart?
The 2010 Dublin Irish Festival is in the books, and the City of Dublin's reputation and economy were once again raised to a higher level thanks to it. More than 100,000 people attended the three-day event last weekend. Our Dublin AM Rotary Club was an integral part of its success, having been the "driving force" behind everyone having their favorite beverages. Quite simply, the festival just wouldn't have been the same without us!
Our participation was threefold:
1) Raise Dublin AM Rotary's awareness in the community.
2) Raise the fun-factor and fellowship among our members and their friends/neighbors who worked with us.
3) Raise $4000 for our club activities and projects.
The tasks and challenges were many:
Taking beverage orders by radio
Driving pop, water and ice out to sales locations
Tracking the bottles of Baileys, Bushmills Whiskey and Mead wines
Slinging ice out of an ice truck into golf carts
Siphoning water out of 50 gallon ice troughs...with broken siphons (Dwight)
Dumping a golf cart full of Mountain Dew into a creek (Bonnie and Dave Connelly, Sr.)
Getting lost while driving on the festival grounds, even with a map in hand (too many people to name...)
On an anecdotal level, I can personally say that I had many weekend conversations with many community leaders and residents about our club. "What's Rotary, I've heard of it...?" or "I saw your picture in the paper - what a fantastic group Rotary is." or "You guys are a class organization - thanks for all of your help at the Festival." or "We couldn't have done this without Rotary."
The City of Dublin is very impressed and happy with our efforts, and many went out of their way to express their gratitude.
The DIF Honorary Chair Randy Hicks, even mentioned our group during his remarks at the Finale on stage on Sunday night.
Moving forward, a get together will be planned for all interested to help share their thoughts, observations and lessons learned so that we might determine our interest in serving again.
Look for an invitation soon on that...
So many things make us proud to be Dublin AM members. This was not saving a life or feeding a hungry person. This wasn't performing minimally invasive surgery or giving an amputee the gift of a new hand. This was a great opportunity though, to enjoy some fellowship and relationship building with one another, and to realize again that we are all fortunate to be surrounded by fun and dedicated people each week at Dublin AM Rotary.
So many great pictures thanks to Bonnie Coley Malir. More on the Dublin AM Flicker link on www.dublinam.org home page - left side - Club Links.
