Media Release

Virginia, Dec 26: Mangalorean Catholic Association (MCA) of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia Christmas event was a full capacity in-person event held on Saturday, December 10, at the banquet hall of Preet Palace in Centreville, Virginia. Approximately 115 plus attendees relished the opportunity to meet in person with friends and families.

As attendees arrived, the registration team of MCA treasurer Nicole Racadag and MCA committee member Nirmala Pinto handed out gift bags containing beautifully designed mementos and personalized Christmas cards to each family. The banquet hall catered sumptuous appetizers while drinks such as wine and beer were served to the attendees throughout the night.

There were a lot of surprises and twists in the programme this year. The event started with children’s games that Reynel Castelino, Elvina Moras, Julia Dante and Merlyn Mathias conducted excellently, the theme was based on ‘Santa Says’ that all the children enjoyed.

For the first time, there was the super-duo young MCs who rocked the stage and the floor and kept the audience engaged. Both stepped in to assist as the association was searching for new talent, and got them. Esthar Smitha and Nalini Pinto clearly took over the programme right from the start and finished it off excellently. They kept the programme lively and progressed smoothly.

MCA president V James Dante spoke about the notable achievements of the committee such as obtaining the non-profit status for the association which had remained as a dream for many years. The president acknowledged his team at the event, especially since this was the last event of the committee’s term and recognized by giving away the Recognition Plaques to each committee member appreciating their contribution and support. The gathering did miss dynamic VP, Clint Almeida, who had worked to put the theme together but could not make it to the event due to some prior commitments. The president too received a plaque from Juliet Vaz, a popular past president. At this time, Juliet Vaz spoke about upcoming elections and motivated everybody to step up and form a new energetic committee full of ideas and lively concepts to attract a bigger crowd for our future events.

The next surprise was the dancing Santa with his Elf. This year, Santa was very energetic, interactive with the kids and parents, gave away the gifts, took pictures with families, sang with everyone, and finally showed some hifi dance moves. Special acknowledgement of Clement and Malin Noronha for their help with conducting the programme.

The highlight of the programme was the ‘Mr and Mrs Gatsby’ contest. There were three judges who judged the couples based on their Gatsby style costumes, their ramp walks and the answers to their questions to score the winning couple. There would have been over twenty couples who participated in the contest and the couple with the highest overall score won the award. Renita and Walter Biswas bagged the award.

As the night progressed with a lot of partying and dancing while enjoying the appetizers and drinks, secret judges were scoring for the best dressed male and best dressed female from the crowd. Two male judges judged the best dressed female and two female judges judged the best dressed male. The best dressed female award went to Rosetta Borkar and the best dressed male award to Wilson Mathias.

There were many spot games conducted by the MCs. ‘Ultra Beats’ music group, a local town favorite, kept the crowd on their toes with their mix of 1920 Gatsby and contemporary tracks. Dinner preceded with a video Christmas message received from Oswald D’Souza of diocese of Bombay for Mangalorean Catholics in the DC area. Following that, Fr Chris Arockiaraj (Christy), of Theological College and the teaching faculty at The Catholic University of America gave his personal Christmas message to the audience and blessed the food before meals. Dinner was a lavish spread of delicious vegetarian, non-vegetarian items and desserts.

The dancing continued throughout the night at its peak and it was combined with Raffle draws with bells to notify the raffle time, which worked out excellently. Julia Dante and Merlyn Mathias conducted the Raffle round excellently, entertained the crowd with their quick wits and gave away the prizes throughout the night. It was proof that the Gatsby theme was very well received and executed at the Christmas event.

There were several sponsors and donors for this Christmas event and a presentation was displayed on the TV with the sponsors’ names and their businesses. The association thanked them for their contribution to making this event possible.

The MCA committee worked to put together the Gatsby theme together to make the event a roaring success. The attendee families appreciated the excellent work done by the team and wished them sincere thanks for their hard work and dedication.