Media Release
Mumbai, Sep 17: Kanara Catholic Association, Thane celebrated their first anniversary on 13th September 2015 with a thanksgiving mass at St John The Baptist Church, Thane followed by a get-together at St John The Baptist School Hall Thane.
The celebration began with lighting of the traditional five-wick 'diya' by Fr Michael Pinto, Fr Stanley Lobo, Kanarite William Colaco, the senior most member; Kanarite Oliver Colaco, the president and Kanarite Christopher D’Souza the secretary.
The secretary welcomed the members and Kanarita Sonal D’Silva, a member of the managing committee gave the milestones of the association and touched upon the theme of the celebration : Project Education. Members were happy to hear – and some even expressed surprise – that KCA-T has already adopted four children; two girls from Thane and two boys from distant Diva under Project Education. Being an educationist, Fr Michael appreciated this aspect of Christian charity in his short speech.
With these preliminaries completed the focus shifted to felicitating Kte William Colaco on having completed 85 years and for the services rendered to the association even at his advanced age. The president gave a very short background of Kte William Colaco and conferred on his life membership of Kanara Catholic Association – Thane, by presenting a scroll and a memento. Thereafter Kte William Colaco thanked the members for the honour. The souvenir of the function was released by Kte William Colaco and others on stage. Kte Timothy D’Souza, a member of the managing committee proposed a vote of thanks and brought down the curtain.
The second part of the celebration was the social which all members were looking forward to. The young and the old participated in the games, competed against one another and the winners took home fabulous prizes. The highlight of this session was the presentation of a cheque to Fr Allwyn D’Silva, parish priest of St John The Baptist Church, Thane, towards the restoration of the 433 years old heritage church building, the cheque was presented by Kanarite Ronald Saldanha, the treasurer of KCA-T.
And what was the last item on the programme? No prize for guessing. It was a sumptuous dinner – the Mangalurean cuisine. What an evening? A lovely one indeed!
The proceedings were ably compered by Kanarite A L Monis in his inimitable style and “aput” Konkarni.