Media Release

Chicago, August 20: India Catholic Association of America held its Annual Summer Get Together today at York Woods Forest Preserve in Oak Brook, Illinois.  The picnic brought together Indians of different origins for good fellowship and fun-filled activities. Several past presidents of this association,  Larry D’Souza, Dr. Gerard Aranha, Dr. Noel Rao,  Hector Lobo, Allwyn Baptist, Rose Aranha,  Ashok Pais, Austin Prabhu, Savio Lobo to name a few were in attendance.  Current president Dr. Vikram Prabhu welcomed the gathering. 

A potluck style picnic with sumptuous, finger-licking dishes was brought in to share with one another by different families who attended.  These delectable prize winning dishes were put to the test by a best dish competition judged by Sarita Pinto, Atina D’Souza and Ana Kamath.   The winners of the competition were: Sandy Noronha who won the first prize for her ‘butter chicken’, second prize went to Dr. Anita Baptist for her ‘chicken biryani’ and the third prize went to Stella Pillay for ‘channa masala’.  Lunch was served with hot Indian chai specially prepared by Rose Aranha.

Ashok Pais held bingo games assisted by Carolina Prabhu and the winners took home some attractive prizes.  All attendees had a wonderful time playing games like sand bag pit, soccer, football, etc.   A special Magic Show was arranged by Sarita Pinto.  Gary Kantor showed several magic tricks to children and adults.  It was the best item of today’s event.

India Catholic Association of America is the first Indian association, which started in the Chicagoland area in the year 1960.