Hundreds set for another gala Athlone charity banquet

Ireland"s Olympic silver medal winner Kenny Egan will present a pair of boxing shorts signed by Muhammad Ali to the highest bidder at a charity auction in Athlone"s Radisson SAS Hotel this weekend. An auction of sporting items will form part of the third annual black tie Midlands Charity Ball, which raises money for Our Lady"s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. Egan will also be in town a week later at a separate charity ball, the Hatters Extravaganza, which is being organised by the Rebuild for Bosnia Charity (see page 9). In addition to the shorts signed by the man regarded by many as the greatest sportsperson of all time, Saturday"s giant auction will also offer jerseys signed by Manchester United"s Ronaldo, Liverpool"s Steven Gerrard, and others. Legendary memorabilia from Pele and Maradona will also be available on the night. Celtic stakeholder Dermot Desmond has donated jerseys and two tickets to any Celtic game this season, while two tickets for a Liverpool v Arsenal fixture will also go under the hammer. Organiser Enda Kennedy stated that the event raised approximately €40,000 for the worthy cause during each of the past two years. While the national economic downturn has, inevitably, resulted in decreased sponsorship this year, tickets for the charity ball have been selling well and Enda stated that he"s hopeful the auction and raffle on the night will be very successful. For over a decade Enda, a Clara native, has organised and participated in initiatives which raised hundreds of thousands of euro for the hospital in Crumlin. Last August he was bitterly disappointed when his planned charity swim across the English Channel couldn"t go ahead because of unfavourable weather conditions. 'People think that you just show up and swim across the channel but it"s something that so many people want to do and the English and French authorities have to monitor it closely. There"s an awful lot of red tape and paperwork involved,' he explained. 'There are only so many slots available and I was booked in from August 9-16, but when winds are stronger than a force three the boats won"t go out and during that time the winds were force five or six. So that was very disappointing given the time and effort that had gone into preparing for it.' Enda spent about €5,500 of his own money over 14 months and swam 2,200 kilometres in preparation for the Channel swim. 'Although I didn"t get the chance to swim the Channel, I had been out swimming in Galway for seven hours every Saturday and six hours every Sunday in preparation for it, so I think that justifies the sponsorship money people gave me to do the swim for Crumlin!' he said. David Doran, Chief Executive of the Children"s Medical and Research Foundation will be among the guest speakers at Saturday"s black tie ball in the Radisson, while one of the top consultants at the Crumlin hospital, Dr Finn Breathnach, will also attend. The event gets underway with a Champagne reception at 7.15pm. Music will be provided by 'Top Brass', followed a disco with DJ Sha. Enda stated this week that some tickets for the event were still available. For further information, he can be contacted on 087 6488288