My daughter does traditional Irish dance so St. Patrick's Day is a whirlwind for us. My daughter dances for a place called Millennium Academy of Irish Dance and we had a number of girls qualify for Nationals, as well as a single girl qualify for the World Championships for Irish dance. Obviously the travel isn't cheap so each year, typically the Saturday before, and the day of, the girls are organized into a few groups of 8 to do pub tours, where they will dance and pass a hat for donations to help offset some travel costs. There is a large Irish population in Columbus, Ohio so on St. Patrick's Day each year there is a huge event called the Irish Family Reunion held at the Convention Center in Columbus. In this first picture my daughter and those other girls and guys that were allowed to miss school to dance at the Irish Family Reunion did just that.
My daughter Kahlan is the younger girl, she is 8 and it was her first time doing the pub tours this year. The older girl, Ava, held my daughter's hand and was her buddy when they passed the hat at the different locations. Between an early performance for the Columbus Fire Department St. Patrick's Day party, and the Saturday before, and the day of, my daughter and the 7 other girl's managed to pull in $2800 to help offset the costs for girls going to Worlds and Nationals. I know our studio had 4 additional groups of 8 girls out also passing the hat. I hope if my daughter makes it that far they will have successful pub tours if that ends up with me paying for all of the travel.