FIRST LADY AND PRIME MINISTER'S WIFE VISIT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR NORTHERN IRELAND

US First Lady Laura Bush visited the Community Foundation yesterday, accompanied by Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

They visited with Foundation Chair Mary Black CBE, Foundation Director Avila Kilmurray, and learned about the YouthBank scheme with Coordinator Vernon Ringland. Later, they observed how a grant application is assessed by YouthBank participants. The visit lasted more than an hour before the First Lady departed to join her husband at an integrated school in Belfast. It was the First Lady's first visit to the Community Foundation. Sarah Brown was a return visitor, having been the special guest at the 2007 Community Awards presentation ceremony in December. Minister of Social Development Margaret Ritchie also made her first visit to the Foundation, and promised to make a return visit to learn more about the work of the Foundation.

Pictured in the photograph above, from left to right, Foundation Chair Mary Black, Peter Coulter, US First Lady Laura Bush, Trudi Phillips and Sarah Brown