[caption id="attachment_69100" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Kitty Geissler is introduced by Margaret Hennessey. "]
Kitty Geissler and Joe Cunningham were the honorees at the recent Westchester County AOH and Ladies AOH County Board Dinner Dance held in the
Hibernian Hall at the Hudson Valley Irish Center in Verplanck.
Both honorees are looking forward to celebrating their 100th birthdays in 2012 and both were duly presented at the dinner dance with the Westchester County AOH Leadership Award.
This was the second year in which the Leadership Award, given to Westchester residents who contribute to the Irish American community through their exceptional leadership, was handed out.
Joe Cunningham's arrived in the U.s. in 1929, when the Echo was a year old. Over the years he became a legendary band leader, his story having been chronicled in recent times by the Aisling Center's book, "When Mem'ry Brings Us Back" and in the RTE documentary, "To Love Two Countries."
Kitty Geissler was born in Hospital, County Limerick and raised in Knocklong. She came to America 1930 and settled in Westchester
County. She joined the Ladies Auxiliary of the AOH in Portchester in 1937. Now a 74-year member of the AOH she lives in and is one of the most
active members of LAOH Division 11 in Tarrytown.
Those in attendance included Irish Consul General and Hanora O'Dea Kilkenny, Siobhan Dennehy, executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, AOH National Vice President Brendan Moore, Ladies National President Margaret Fogarty, AOH national board members Jere Cole and Dan Dennehy, New York state board members James Burke and Tim McSweeney.
The Irish Center building, a former red school house, serves as both a Hibernian Hall and Irish Cultural Center and was built by Irish immigrants in 1876. The names of some of its builders are etched in the brick over the entrance.
During the evening, Westchester County Ladies AOH President Mary Gorman and County AOH President Brian Kelly presented statues of Annie Moore to the two honoroes and also dished up slices of a giant sized cake adorned with AOH & LAOH logos.
