Author: Sean Smith | bostonirish.com | 30 November 2018
A local holiday-themed event coming up in early December offers a very desirable combination: great entertainment to help support a worthy cause that is inspired by one person’s good works.
Legendary Irish singer-songwriter Robbie O’Connell and Cape Cod fiddler Rose Clancy will present “A Celtic Christmas Concert” on Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. at The Ancient Order of Hibernian Hall Division 14 of Watertown, 151 Watertown St. Partial proceeds will benefit the Chios Eastern Shore Response Team (CESRT), an NGO group of volunteers that assists refugees who are currently housed on the Greek Islands.
The concert’s organizers cite Sister Lena Deevy, LSA, the now-retired founder of the Irish International Immigrant Center in Boston, as a guiding spirit for the event. They note Irish President Michael D. Higgins’s description of her tireless work in Boston and in Ireland as “small acts of kindness, unseen but with profound effect.”
In a similar vein, the organizers hope that their fundraiser will help make a difference to families and individuals being assisted by CESRT. While the intense media coverage of the refugees’ plight in the Greek Islands, as elsewhere in Europe, has receded, the situation is still desperate, the organizers point out: The refugee camps are crowded, with mostly canvas shelters, and the people in them have little or nothing. CESRT provides basic food, water, dry clothing and toiletries, and is trying to arrange schooling for the children in the camps. The response team also is accepting applications for volunteers who can self-fund their travel for minimum two-week rotations and for teachers with credentials who can commit two months of time to work with children [more information is available at gofundme.com/ShareTheJourney]. Read more>>>