On Thursday July 18th, The New York Young Leaders hosted their annual “Summer in the City” fundraiser on the patio of the Wheeltapper in the Fitzpatrick’s Grand Central Hotel in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
Led by event Co-Chairs Erin Fitzsimmons and Dean Thomas, over 100 Young Leaders, friends and supporters, including The American Ireland Fund Chairman-elect John Fitzpatrick, braved the summer heat to enjoy a great night of fun and fundraising for the Promising Ireland Campaign. The gracious staff of the Fitzpatrick’s hotel prepared a classic American summer BBQ buffet. Our friends at Jameson provided us with a special Jameson summer cocktail prepared by their master mixologists
Our good friend John Malone provided the entertainment on the acoustic guitar singing classic Irish tunes mixed in with American summer favorites. John was joined by an impromptu performance by the ‘Celtic Sopranos’, the duet of the incredibly talented young Irish traditonal singers, clearly on their rise to the top of the charts.
The Young Leaders were assisted all evening by the mentees of the US NI Mentorship Program who helped with raffle sales, check in and ticket sales. The US NI program was started by the Ireland Fund in 2010 and provides Northern Ireland recent college graduates with opportunity to come to the US and work with future 500 companies on a one year visa.
A spirited live auction included a VIP 2013 ‘US Open Tennis Experience’ provided by our good friend Patrick Leahy as well as a VIP visit to the set of ‘Watch What Happens Live’ with Andy Cohen provided by Young Leader Deirdre Connolly.
We hope everyone enjoyed the summer and we look forward to seeing you all at future American Ireland Fund events.
For more information on Young Leader membership please contact Pat Tully, National Director of Young Leaders at ptully@irlfunds.org
