Get your own Free Home Page, blarst ye!Despite a gloomy, overcast landscape, Sunday, April 1st 2001 saw the American-Scottish Foundation once again mounting its third Tartan Day in New York Ceremony (in truth, the fourth such ceremony overall) at Central Park's Literary Walk and Naumberg Bandshell. Hosted by the Foundation's President, Alan L. Bain, the event featured its co-coordinators, the Clan Gordon Highlanders Pipe Band of Locust Valley, Andy McDicken, Pipe Major, and representatives from six additional Pipe Bands, five of them from the Tri-State Area, and the sixth from beyond New York: The MacGregor Pipe Band of Newtown, PA [wearing, as ye might expect, Ancient Hunting MacGregor tartan]; the Rockland County Scottish Pipe Band; the Essex County, NJ Police & Fire Department Emerald Society Pipe Band, Chapter 1; the Joseph Duelk, Jr. AOH Pipe Band ("The Old Brigade"), Monroe, NY; the Bergen County, NJ Firefighters' Emerald Society Pipe Band and the NYC Corrections Department Emerald Pipe Band --- and marching with them, directly from Edinburgh, were the legendary Lothian & Borders Police Pipe Band!
They were joined by then-Parks Commissioner Henry Stern; Eric and Janis Milligan, Lord and Lady Provost of the City of Edinburgh; Tom Harris, from the British Consul General's Office; Michael Baume, representing the Australian Consul General's Office; Sara Grotrian, representing Marie Curie Cancer Care, along with her husband Tom, who was himself representing bagpipe impresario Magnus Orr --- the man who, in August 2000, singlehandedly took 8650 Pipers and Drummers from all over the world and marched them down Edinburgh's Royal Mile.
Also with us that day were Roderick Kerr, head of the St. Andrew's Society of New York State; John Lampl, VP/Corporate Communications, British Airways; and Assistant Chief Constable Tom Wood of the Lothian & Borders Police.
One highlight of the all-too-short afternoon's festivities was the announcement that, as part of what was then dubbed "New York Tunes of Glory", wherein Mr. Orr sought to captivate 5th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas, as it eventually turned out), with another record-setting 10,000 Pipers and Drummers, the proceeds would not only support Marie Curie Cancer Care in the U.K., but also Gilda's Club here in the States. (Gilda's Club is dedicated in memory of Saturday Night Live founding alumnus Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer; Gene Wilder, her husband, is the Club's national spokesman.)
And that's how we celebrated Tartan Day 2001. Did Tartan Day 2002 live up to the expectations of its organizers? Aye, that it did --- and, o' course, we owed it all to one verra important factor: PUBLICITY! It weren't long afore we started spreadin' the word about Tartan Day, not only here on the web, but in ALL important media --- Today, The Early Show, Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC, every significant magazine we could think of! And, needless tae be sayin', the Tartan Day websites, at http://www.tartanday.org, tartanweek.com, and http://www.pipefest.com did their part as well, along with (natch!) yer auld Uncle Fergus!
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