It’ll be on sale at our St. Patrick’s Day dinner and at our next general meeting!

I'm Back

How quickly a year passes, it seems like only yesterday we (SIS) were electing Gary Hamilton as our new president. Oddly I remember what a relief I felt when the vote was counted and I had "lost" the election. I was relieved that I no longer had the responsibility of trying to get SIS headed in the right direction after a very tumultuous previous year. Due to the tenuous circumstances as to how I became the interim president, I found that I was not mentally prepared to take the bold steps necessary to keep SIS on track and to move us forward. Instead I chose to just try to keep our heads above water and take careful little steps forward so as not to further lead the society in a negative direction.

During this past year as your VP, I had many opportunities to participate in several events and observe the leadership of Gary Hamilton and how he worked so diligently to really make SIS a viable and fun organization to be a part of. This past year I have gained the strength, knowledge and most of all the confidence to continue to move SIS to the forefront within the community through our festivals, dinners and hopefully more education. Becoming active within our community is essential for any organization such as SIS to remain in the minds of community leaders and citizens to make them want to learn more about our Celtic heritage. We can only achieve this by being visible at community events, charities, dinners and in the various news media to include TV, radio, magazines and newspapers.

This year I hope to make SIS as active as we can possibly be or at least as much as we want to be; but as you all know one person or a board of a few cannot accomplish this on their own. I will be asking for many volunteers for various events etc to insure success in whatever we attempt and to make whatever we do and for all who participated or just attended something to remember. Being active within our community is what it is all about. I look forward to this next year with great anticipation to work with all of you and others to make SIS the best we can be.

Thanks

Bill Knight

President, SIS       

Six members were inducted into the Order of the Celtae at the Celts of America (COA) first awards banquet, Jan 17.   This is an order of chivalry formed by COA to honor those who worked throughout the year to promote Celtic heritage and community service.  Inductees were Quincy Barlow, Gary Hamilton, Sabrina Shull, Christine Murraine, Janice Murraine, and Matthew Murraine.  Knight of the Order, Wayne McFee and John Duggan performed ceremonies.

Karl & Jane Dailey reside in Chadron and boast being of Irish, Scot and Welch descent.  They belong to the clans McDonald and Campbell.

Grant & Mildred Ray live in Rapid.  Grant is currently taking bagpipe lessons from Suzanne Karl.  These Scots are from the Clan MacRay.

Jeff & Sandy Burns are Rapid Citians who are interested in genealogy and dancing.  (Don’t miss the St Patrick’s Day Dinner – we are looking at teaching a dance there!  ALSO… John Burke is interested in getting some folks interested in dancing to practice with his Norwegian group and share some dances.)

Jane Udick Williams is of Irish and Welsh heritage and belongs to clans OHagian, O’hagan, Hagan.  Jane also lives in Rapid.

Ryan & Tina Schuler claim a wide background of Irish, Scot, Welsh, and Basque Celtic.  They belong to Clan MacDonnell (of Glengarry) and McDougalls.  They own Blackwatch Security.  Some of our members  “Celt’d” up for a commercial of theirs a couple of years ago.

Hope to see all of you at our next General Meeting, February 15^th.

Our information is about a week old but Kirk has been at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, for about three weeks now.  Craig is an institution with a reputation for providing high quality, aggressive care for people with injuries similar to Kirk’s.

For those of you who do not know Kirk Spell, he is the Highland Athletics Director for our Gathering of the Clans Festival.  Kirk is a founder of Black Hills Scottish Athletes.  While on vacation in Hawaii in December Kirk injured his neck in a surfing accident.  He displaced 2 vertebrae, bruising his spinal cord.

What we hear is that Kirk is spending increasingly longer periods of time out of bed in a wheel chair.  He spends longer times without breathing assist, is eating soft foods and is starting to speak.  He has feeling and is moving his arms.

Kirk's "JOB" for the next four months will be his rehab. He will work up to eight hours a day Monday thru Friday and then the weekends will be filled with recreational rehab (learning everyday things from his new vantage point).

Mollie, Kirk’s wife, has created a site for Kirk on the Craig Hospital CarePages www.carepages.com  You'll have to sign up, create your own user name and password and then you can visit the care page for Kirk at "KirkSpell".

The fundraiser for the Spell family is going strong. Thanks go to Celts of America for their work managing the very successful fund.  Last report put it over $10,000.  The Celtic Community can be proud of this effort.  But, please keep the donations coming.  It is very costly for Mollie to live “on the road” and care for Kirk.

The URL is http://celtsofamerica.org/ks.html or contribute at:

Kirk Spell Relief Fund

First Western Bank

333 West Blvd

Rapid City, SD 57701

Contact info for Kirk and Mollie:

Craig Hospital, room 218

3425 S Clarkson St
Englewood, CO 80110

Phone: (720) 833-0914

We thank Greg Bradshaw of
Littleton, CO, for much of the information for this update.

Helen McFarland Magnusson shared that there will be an international gathering of the MacFarlane Clan in Estes Park in 2007.  Helen is thinking about getting a group together to attend.  Contact her if you’re interested in more information.

Your Input Needed

            This newsletter would be far more interesting with your input:  news, events, culture, history, photos, new Celtic businesses, anything.  Submit your articles in MS Word doc and photos in jpg format.  E-mail to info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org .

We welcome any Scottish or Irish trivia from any member.  Please submit your thoughts to Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org

or contact Pat Hamilton, newsletter editor.

Cheers!                                   Slainte! (Slawn-che)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!       Beannachtai na Feile Padraig!

(Bann-ockt-tee nih fail-eh pawd-rig)

Welcome! (literally “a hundred thousand welcomes”)

                                         Cead mile failte! (Cade meela fall-cheh)

A health to you, A wealth to you,

And the best that life can give to you.

May fortune still be kind to you.

And happiness be true to you,

And life be long and good to you,

Is the toast of all you friends to you.

Geneaology

 The genealogy association meets every 3^rd Friday of each month at the Canyon Lake Senior Citizen’s Club.  Contact Nila Boone if you have any questions.