The Charitable Irish Society will hold its annual Silver Key Awards event on Wed., Sept. 18, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. As in the past, this year’s honorees – Charles L. Donahue, Jr., Mike Oliver, and Anita Sharma – come from the corporate and grass roots community sectors and have shown exceptional leadership in building cooperative links between civic, religious, and cultural organizations that welcome and serve the varied and immediate needs of the immigrant community.
• Charles Donahue has had a long career in health care planning, with particular emphasis on community based care and expansion of health care to all. He has been a loyal supporter of Irish philanthropic organizations such as the Irish American Partnership and the Boston Irish Business Association.
• For more than two decades, Mike Oliver has served the immigrant communities in Dorchester, Cambridge, and Boston. As director of the St. Mark’s Community Educational Program, he has organized English language classes and citizen preparation classes for adult immigrants and, in cooperation with Boston Cares, he has expanded that program greatly by training volunteers to conduct citizenship classes at the Boston Public Library and its seven branches as well as in Somerville and Newton.
• Anita Sharma is the executive director of the PAIR (Political Asylum/Immigration Representation) Project, which provides legal representation to asylum seekers, and matches pro bono attorneys with those in need of legal advice. She works closely with the Boston Bar Association’s Immigrant Services Section. She was recently honored as a Bar Foundation Fellow in recognition of her exemplary leadership in Greater Boston’s civic society.
Our honorees for 2019 are the living embodiment of the society’s historic motto of
“With Good Will Doing Service” and thereby carry on the tradition of generations of Boston’s Irish Diaspora to assist those immigrants who aspire to call Boston their home.
Since 1997, this event has served as the Society’s chief fund raiser, enabling it to fulfill its historic core mission of providing aid and assistance to newly-arrived Irish immigrants, and more recently some from other countries, as they face the multiple challenges of adjusting to and assimilating into a new city and country. The evening will feature a silent auction for numerous items, including tickets to professional sports events, gift certificates at high end area restaurants, hospitality baskets of Irish food and drinks, and various art works by local Irish artists and craftsmen.
Sponsorships and silent auction items from individuals and corporations are welcome and can be arranged by contacting Sandra Moody at 617 304-1076. Reservations and payment can be made directly through our website at the following address: charitableirishsociety.org.
Submitted by Catherine B. Shannon, past president of the Charitable Irish Society, 1990-91.