The Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport was the venue for the largest Fast Friends event to date on Valentines night. The venue was decked out with heart-shaped balloons, confetti and Valentine-themed placemats, lovingly made by the Art Group from Omni Training Centre.
St. Michael's House have hosted several successful Fast Friends events since it was set up in 2018. For example, over seventy people dressed up for the Hallowe'en Party in Parnell's GAA Club, Coolock. More recently, the Christmas-themed Snow Ball helped to kick off the festive period. Service users from other organisations have been invited to attend the most recent events with a view to supporting people to widen their social circles further.
A total of 92 people took part in the event with over 30 staff supporting. Thank you to our corporate sponsor Aircoach for transporting many guests to the venue . While most in attendance were people who use St Michael's House, there were also representatives of Daughters of Charity, Stewarts Care, St John of God and the CRC.
The first part of the Valentine Ball evening saw attendees paired up with the opportunity to chat to someone new for 3 - 4 minutes before moving on to the next person. Once people had made a few new friends, the dancing started! DJ Darren Murphy kept the dance-floor full and some serious shapes were thrown to a mix of music from Take That to ABBA; Neil Diamond to Metallica.
Romance was certainly in the air as Joe Sexton got down on one knee and asked Geraldine Julian to marry him.
The room erupted as she said "Yes" and the happy couple danced to "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Pressley. Joe and Geraldine first met at one of the early Fast Friends events over a year ago.
Thank you again to Aircoach which provides airport express coach services from Cork, Belfast, Greystones, Bray, Southside Dublin and Dublin to Dublin Airport. It also operates contracted bus services for airport car parks and other private hire contracts in the Dublin area