Join us in honoring Senator Kennedy's contributions to Ireland
Public can join effort to thank Senator Ted Kennedy for all he’s done for Ireland
US-Ireland Alliance launches program to educate American high school students
The US-Ireland Alliance is inviting all those who would like to say thank you to Senator Ted Kennedy, for all he has done for Ireland, to contribute to an educational program that will be created to teach American high school students about Ireland.
The simplest way to contribute is to go to www.us-irelandalliance.org, click on the ‘Donate’ button on the top of the page and make a contribution using Mastercard or Visa.
Trina Vargo, founder and president of the Alliance, and a former foreign policy adviser to Senator Kennedy, said that “Senator Kennedy has been a strong supporter of education and of Ireland throughout his 46 years in the Senate, and this program will enable us to teach young Americans more about the land he loves so well. I’ve been in Ireland for the last few weeks and many Irish people, seeing the British Government’s decision to grant a knighthood to Senator Kennedy, have expressed to me a desire to contribute something in honor of all the Senator has done for Ireland. I am hearing the same from Irish Americans and Americans who just love Ted Kennedy. We are taking a page from the Obama campaign and going viral on the Internet in the hope that people who care about Ireland will donate and share it with everyone they know and generate an outpouring of support.”
Vargo said: “Most young Americans don’t learn about Ireland in high school because it wasn’t related to the American Revolution, the French Revolution or WWII. Over the years, many high school teachers have told me that, if they had the materials, they’d teach about Ireland. The goal of the Alliance is to help provide these materials and make them widely available to public and private schools across the country.
It would be a large step forward if American high school students have a week of “Ireland” in their History and English classes. We plan to create a panel of experts – Irish and American – to contribute themes and ideas so that we can make the materials so valuable educationally that high school teachers will want to use them and students will be eager to learn from them. A further goal is to encourage high school teachers to take students to Ireland, just as French teachers take their students to France.”
Senator Mitchell recently noted, “no one over the lifetime of a career, has done more for the relationship between the people of Ireland and the US. If young Americans could be instilled with even a tiny amount of his passion for Ireland, it would fuel the relationship for centuries!”
Those unable to contribute online, may send a US dollar check to:
US-Ireland Alliance
2800 Clarendon Blvd. Suite 502 West
Arlington, VA 22201
or euro check to:
US-Ireland Alliance
c/o Joe O’Malley
Hayes Solicitors
Lavery House
Earlsfort Terrace
Dublin 2
The US-Ireland Alliance is a 501(c) (3) organization. In Ireland, the US-Ireland Alliance Limited is an approved body for the purposes of Section 848A, Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997. (In the event that monies are raised in excess of what will be required for this high school program, remaining funds will go toward other Alliance educational projects.)
