Scots Charitable Society

[Thomas Thompson]

  Gail A fellow Scot who has supported our effort to restore Clan Thomson has given me permission to post  her impressions of the Boston Irish Charitable Society Dinner. 
 
    With John being President of the Scots Charitable Society, we've been invited to the Irish Charitable Society's dinner in Boston tonight.  It's on Beacon St, just a block down from the State House at the Hampshire House where Cheer's bar is.  Should be fun.
  And, we are supposed to be invited to the British Consul's private residence on Tartan Day…..whoootee, toootee!  Not sure whether day time or night time, but if during the day, I'm taking the day off to go!!  We have been to the consulate last year for the British Charitable annual meeting last year and met a lot of  very nice people.  Kelly Kassa, President of the Irish came to our St Andrew's dinner/dance as did some of the British Charitable and consulate folks.
   Some business gets done tho, as they've all shared some charitable causes together.  And getting to go to these functions is fun.  Just thought I'd check in with that latest……………no politics today!!

 

Gail

 

[Thomas Thompson]

  " We have a St Andrew’s here in NH as well.  Scots Charitable is out of Boston and has been active since 1657…..yes, you read that correctly!!
      www.scots-charitable.org"
  Gail

 Well................a bit of  the 'hoity-toity' there!  Sounds like a couple of great events! We tried to help get a Scottish group going in the Upper Cumberlands here, but couldn't get/keep people interested. We don't have a St. Andrews group and maybe that's what it takes.......something organized and larger behind you. But at least we tried!

That "Cheers" bar always looked so neat on TV..........let me know if it really does look the same!
Mary

[Thomas Thompson]

  We had a very lovely time at the Charitable Irish Society dinner.  Met a lot of nice people who all appreciated the wearing of the kilt!!  It was black tie optional so a lot of tuxedoes. About 70/80 people there. Seeing as we didn’t have to pay the $135 per plate as invited guests, we decided to spring for valet parking so we didn’t have to park in the Boston Common underground garage and walk a few blocks to the Hampshire House on Beacon St.  So we spent all of $20 last night!
    Hampshire House is like, or is, a brownstone with the Cheers bar down below (John says to tell you that it doesn’t look like the TV show bar as he’s been there).  Very elegant with wood paneled walls and old books in built-in bookcases.  Big brass chandeliers as big as say a kitchen table area.  The food was great and open bar for beer and wine.  No corned beef/cabbage.
   They served scallops wrapped in bacon, stuffed mushrooms, and the best of the best, baby lamb chops, cooked with Dijon and bread crumbs---they were to die for.  I would have been happy with just the lamb.  That was “horses’ do-vers”.  Main meal was a fancy greens salad with grilled asparagus and Portobello mushrooms, smoked salmon wrapped in a crepe with a cream cheesy filling,  Entrée was 2 huge gulf shrimp and beef tenderloin with red potatoes and some grilled veggies.  Dessert was three tiny bite-size---one chocolate, one strawberry and the other was a tiny tart.  Then there were these huge chocolate shamrock lollipops at each place setting.  OMG it was excellent!
    The speaker was much better than we thought.  His bio led us to think we might be hearing a bunch of liberal crapola, but it wasn’t.  Not political but religious based, but not preachy.  No music other than piping to announce dinner, and the singer of the anthems.  No entertainment.
   Great evening, but late.  Got to bed at midnight so 5am came way too early!!
Gail

 

 

 

[Stirling Thompson]

Sounds grand but not really my cup of tea so it's probably just as well I wasn't invited! I'm a bit too blue collar for that sort of thing.

[Thomas Thompson]

    Do you have members of Clan Thompson in New England area?  What they are looking for is people interested in being active and helping and doing.  Their primary thrust nowadays is academic scholarships, as opposed to the Scottish arts. They do some relief work as well.  They combined efforts with the British Charitable to send a native born Scot back to Scotland because he was quite ill and wanted to die in his homeland.  They paid for him and his daughter to fly to Scotland where he died a few days after arriving home.  They have a lot of money invested so it is quite a responsibility to maintain what they have.  Their members are aging so trying to get new (and younger) blood is a bonus.  Seems one doesn’t really get into heritage until you get a little older.
   They started way back in 1657 to assist indigent Scots coming out of their indentured servitude at the Saugus Iron Works.  Most of these were prisoners sent by the English to Mass to work at the Iron Works, which is still there today as a national historic site. Very interesting place.  They ‘ve dug up some of the original things and even have a working bellows that works pumping water to run the forges.  The bellows is huge---bigger than a car!  We had an outing there and they ran everything for us….very cool.  I hadn’t been there since I was in 2nd grade having been brought up about 7 or 8 miles from there in Lynn.
Gail

Subject: Re: CHARITABLE IRISH SOCIETY DINNER
    Wow! Sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime great night for only $20!!!!  My mouth is watering and I have to go fix my oatmeal.....somehow, it pales in comparison, eh?  Just the SOUND of the food is to die for!
   Question: For purposes of applying for our 501(c)(3)..........I see the group offers some kind of scholarship and they are 501(c)(3).......if Clan Thompson donated to their scholarship fund, do you think that would cover our requirement for 'charitable' for the 501? We tried using the amateur athletics at the games and that didn't work. Are the scholarships available only to certain groups or can anyone apply? What 'cha think?
Also, noted in the bequest part of the society page they listed it as 501(3)(c) instead of 501(c)(3)....might want to change that.
Mary
Gail said:
     "I’ll tell John about the 501 c 3 thingie via I’m copying him in here.
    I would think that would be an appropriate donation, but I’m not an expert.   These are academic scholarships to those of Scottish heritage….I believe that the application form is online to peruse the criteria for application.  If you don’t find what you want/need, suggest you e-mail or call John."