A benefit evening to raise funds for the PREDA Foundation will take place at the Western Hotel, Prospect Hill tonight (Thursday ) at 9pm.
The event will be open to the public with up and coming local band Apartment 44 providing the musical entertainment. The band have been strong supporters of the children’s charity over the last two years.
People of the year award winner Fr Shay Cullen, who founded the charity, will be the guest of honour on the night. Tickets costing €12.50 are currently on sale from the reception desk at the Western Hotel or at (091 ) 562834 and from the main office at Galway Community College and are priced at €12.50.
Fr Shay will also visit Galway Community College that day at 2pm to address the PLC student body.
The humanitarian Catholic missionary priest and his staff at PREDA have worked for the betterment of children trapped in the sex industry as well as adult prisons since 1974.
It is hoped that the award will help publicise the plight of the oppressed and enslaved children who the PREDA team are helping on a daily basis and give the charity a stronger support base in Ireland than it already enjoys.
Hollywood actor and social justice activist Martin Sheen and acclaimed singer Damien Dempsey are some of PREDA’s high profile supporters. Others include golfer Padraig Harrington and Irish internationals Shane Long and Kevin Doyle, local hurling hero Ollie Canning, actor James Cromwell and boxer Bernard Dunne.
Singer Damien Dempsey, who grandfather came from the west, performed a PREDA benefit concert in the Warwick Hotel in February. Thanks to his support and that of the Western Hotel PREDA Galway raised €12,130. The money helped build a recreational area for the children at the PREDA children’s centre in Olongapo, north of Manila, as well as paying for the resurfacing of the boys’ accommodation centre. The remainder of the money was used to provide emergency relief for children freed from prisons or rescued from lives of destitution or sexual servitude.
Fairtrade and Child Rights Education Packs are currently being completed by PREDA Galway. The packs are designed to highlight the work of PREDA and are aimed at CSPE and Transition Year classes at secondary level. The packs will be officially launched later in the year and samples are available on request.
PREDA Galway is seeking new members and meets every six weeks at the Western Hotel. For further information telephone (086 ) 6681339 or e-mail [email protected]
