South East vintage club donates €8,000 to Tullow day care centre
Willie Fitzpatrick, treasurer SEVMC, presents the proceeds of the club's vintage day to Wendy Sinnott, manager Tullow Day Care Centre Photo: michaelorourkephotography.ie
THE South-Eastern Vintage Machinery club (SEVMC) has been supporting Tullow Day Care Centre for two decades through donating some of the proceeds of their annual rally to them.
In turn, volunteers from the day care centre run a tea tent at the club’s annual rally, serving refreshments and also providing stewards to help the event run smoothly.
In return for the day care centre’s great work in the community and its volunteers’ help at the rally, SEVMC has donated €8,000 to the charity each year for the past three years.
The club presented the charity with a large cheque after this year’s rally, with tea and coffee afterwards.
Sean Carroll, chairperson of SEVMC said: “The rally is our hobby. We want to be able to show the vintage stuff and for people to see it working. That’s in the planning since last January so lot of work goes into it behind the scenes. It takes a lot of people to make it happen.” SEVMC has been going since 1981 and holds monthly meetings in Ardattin. The club is now open to new membership.
Sean is particularly keen on getting young people involved in the club and who may not ever have seen the older, obsolete machinery.
“They’re the lifeblood. If you don’t have new people coming along, the older generation aren’t going to be there forever,” said Sean.
The club isn’t confined to showing off vintage machines only in Ardattin. They attend other vintage rallies in Castledermot and Carnew to support groups there as well.
The committee would like to thank the landowners around Ardattin for allowing the club to use their fields for the rally. They will hold an auto jumble on 1 November and will make further donations to charity from the proceeds of that event.
