Toronto: ICCA Canada Christmas Extravaganza

Media Release

Toronto: December 28: ICCA Canada (Indo-Christian Cultural Association) held its Christmas Extravaganza on December 26th, 2008 at the La-Suhaag banquet hall.  This event gave several families an opportunity to get acquainted with one another.

The evening started with Walter Hayde, President of the Association welcoming the guests.  The real momentum of the show was witnessed when the live band “Blindfold test” and DJ Darren gave their best and brought the young and the old onto the floor. The sumptuous buffet was mouth watering. Mid night snacks/sweets kept the dancing crowd going on until much after past midnight.

Walter Hayde introduced the Executive committee and expressed that ICCA is indebted to and is grateful to the efforts put in by the committee who organized several events during 2008.

ICCA in 1991 was started by four Mangalorean pioneers, Henry Castelino, Stan Rodrigues, Charles Menezes and Richard D’Souza.  It was suggested at the time that it be named Mangalorean Catholic Association but the founders, due to the cosmopolitan nature of the country and the need to accommodate members and their spouses not necessarily from Mangalore, selected the name ICCA and the constitution laid out that at least one spouse should be a Christian. Since the inception, the association, due to the hard work of elected presidents and their committees has grown to be a well-connected community.

The objective in starting the association was to help out the new immigrants in bringing them together so that they felt comfortable in their new country and the families could know each other and develop friendships.  Organizing dances, picnics, talent shows, camping and skiing trips, visiting holy shrines and shopping trips in the U.S. have helped in achieving these objectives.

All this has been made possible due to a dedicated membership, service-minded elected presidents and their committees, a good constitution, supervision of finances and auditing of accounts.  Besides being democratic, ICCA is an equal opportunity organization, having had the good fortune of having very capable presidents and an annually elected Management Committee.

Stan Rodrigues was invited to share his past experiences.
For more read: www.iccacanada.com