Last Friday, July 1st, saw the opening of the annual Clonakilty Camera Club Fundraising Exhibition in the Round Tower at the Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery.
We were delighted to have Diarmuid O’Sullivan, the founder of Irish Yoghurts officially open the exhibition as well as Anthony McDermott, the Mayor of Clonakilty who also attended the evening. The charity benefitting from this year’s fundraising efforts is The Rainbow Club, an organisation that assists children with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. The Rainbow Club was well-represented by the co-founders of the organisation, Karen O’Mahony and her husband John, along with Karen’s colleague, Maeve Hurley. There was an excellent turn out of club members with friends and partners in addition to numerous friends and volunteers from the Rainbow Club.
The evening commenced with a welcome from the outgoing chair of the camera club, Kathleen Hayes and was followed by the Clonakilty Mayor, Anthony McDermott and the official opening speech by Diarmuid O’Sullivan. To end the formalities, Karen O’Mahony spoke about the Rainbow Cub explaining how from small beginnings it has grown tremendously over the past year to help change the lives of well over 100 children, of all ages.
As a club, we were delighted to be able to raise well in excess of €600 from the sale of raffle tickets alone, in addition to selling several photos with a minimum of €50 from each sale being donated to the fundraising effort. The club would like to thank the staff and management of the Celtic Ross for giving us the time and space for the exhibition and for providing the tea and coffee on the evening. We would also like to thank Irish Yoghurts for their extremely generous donation of a hamper as first prize in our raffle. Thanks also to Carbery Cheese, Ballineen and Noreen O’Donovan for the cheese and the grapes and to all those who generously donated prizes for the raffle.
The exhibition remains open over the summer and all the photos are for sale so if you get the opportunity head on over and take a look.
Many thanks to John & Joe for the photos from the evening.
