SADOE Member and Reno City Councilman Devon Reese joined Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve as guests at the White House State Dinner last Thursday honoring French President Emmanuel Macron.

“It was the experience of a lifetime and one that will stay with me forever. My heart is very full,” said Reese, who has been in Washington DC this week attending a conference.

KRNV My News 4 has an article on the White House visit, which shows photos of Reese with Vice President Kamala Harris and Late Night Host Stephen Colbert.  The Reno dignitaries joined a list of more than 300 additional guests. The state dinner honor foreign leaders is a tradition that dates back to 1800s with Ulysses S. Grant hosted a Hawaiian king in 1874.

According to Wikipedia, the last state dinner for an Irish Republic dignitary was former President Mary Robinson in 1996.

We are proud to announce that SADOE won the Best Community Group (tied with Hot August Nights) in the annual Sparks Christmas Parade in early December.

Despite winter weather and rain, SADOE was one of 86 entries to participate in the 35^th Annual Sparks Hometowne Christmas Parade. The event was attended by an estimated crowd of 10,000.

In addition to our colorful float with SADOE Director Doyle Stewart singing Christmas and Irish songs, we were joined by six Irish Wolf Hounds.

Thanks to the following SADOE members for their contributions:

• Georgiana Brooks and Gerald Wilmoth for donating the float.
• Michael Del Ostia for all of the logistics
• Kathleen Eagan for towing our float

We are pleased to announce that SADOE will hold the Northern Nevada Celtic Ceilidh on Saturday, May 20 in the Reno Brewery District of Downtown Reno.

Celtic rock band Tempest and Golden Bough will be our headliners. We also intend to have local Celtic entertainers including the Sierra Highlanders Pipe Band, vendors and food trucks.

Earlier this year the Northern Nevada Celtic Celebration held a “Farewell Ceilidh” in the shared parking lot of Black Rabbit Meadery, Lead Dog Brewing and Nevada Sunset Winery on East 4^th Street in Downtown Reno incorporating many elements of the festival, which had been held in Reno for nearly three decades. The festival at Bartley Ranch Regional Park had to be cancelled due to skyrocketing overhead costs due to the pandemic.

The event was successful enough and drew enough interest that the above-mentioned business owners, which includes SADOE Vice President Mike Steedman (co-owner of Nevada Sunset Winery) that they agreed to hold a similar event next year.

Earlier this year, the SADOE Board agreed to inherit the festival as a special event under the new name of “Northern Nevada Celtic Ceilidh” as the governing board of the previous festival, Celtic Celebration, Inc., is dissolving this year.

SADOE Board Members Michael Del Ostia, Doyle Stewart and Willie Puchert, who all served on the Celtic Celebration Board, will serve as subcommittee members who will manage the May 20^th event. More details to come.

SADOE Member Richard Dalton was elected in October as President of the Nevada State Genealogical Society (NSGS).

Dalton plans to work with all the genealogical societies in Northern Nevada to help  grow mutual membership and knowledge of genealogy. He also wants to bring in a speakers annually that will have enough appeal to reach members of all the various genealogy, lineage, and heritage societies like SADOE. If you have ideas for programs, speakers, and the like, please let him know by e-mailing him at [email protected]

Dalton organized SADOE’s TMCC Genealogy Library & Lab Tour in August and is interested in holding similar types of events in the future to foster more interest in genealogy

The Nevada State Genealogical Society fosters and promotes interest in genealogy. Members of the Society share ideas, information, and methods on searching or data about ancestors from Nevada, the United States, and around the World. The meetings are the 3rd Thursday of the month, 5:30pm to 7pm at the Family History Center,  4751 Neil Rd in Southeast Reno.

As most of you have noticed by the preponderance of campers and trailers hauling bikes and art cars on our freeways this past week, the annual Burning Man Festival is being held through Labor Day Weekend over 100 miles Northwest of Reno in the Black Rock Desert.

Emily Stewart, the daughter of SADOE Director Doyle Stewart, is a co-organizer of a Burning Man theme camp this week which intents to call attention to Reno’s homeless population.

The Last Chance Motel project hopes to pleasantly disrupt Burners’ experience and force them to think not only about the community of Reno, but their own community, and how they can combat homelessness, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Their camp is holding a donation bin for non-perishable foods, toiletries, and hygiene products to support the community in Reno experiencing homelessness. They are joining with the local non-profit Karma Box, and will be donating all the collected goods to them to redistribute to our neighbors in need.

The Karma Box is a Reno nonprofit that has outfitted neighborhoods across Northern Nevada in creatively decorated boxes with supplies for the homeless population.

The project was set in motion shortly after the Best Bet Motel came down, and Emily and her friends considered how they could convey the desperation that tenants often reach before living in some of the motels.