Media Release
Washington, Sep 17: Mangalorean Catholic Association (MCA) of Washington DC/Maryland/Virginia celebrated Monthi Fest in a grand style with Kevin Misquith performing for the gathering. The entire event took place at the complex of Holy Spirit Church at Annandale, Virginia.
The show could not have been a success without the stars of the evening, Kevin Misquith, Vanessa Saldana, Norbert Pereira and Nancy Pereira who truly rocked the stage with the audience participation in full. Once the programme started, it kept on climbing up the scale and catching up more participation and applause from the audience until it ended. Vanessa was truly the wonder girl of the night making the young and the old get up from their seats to dance to her rocking numbers backed up by the heavy metal music provided by the DJ.
With the homegrown expert MCs, Pravin D’Souza and Malin Mendonca on stage, people did not even realize how the time was spent from begin to end with the lineup of songs from musicians, the entertainment programmes from the community and all the rest that happened.
Philip Britto & team, and stand-up comedian Savio Fernandes made everyone laugh to their hearts content. Merlyn Mathias, Doris Martis and Vanitha Furtado (NJ) danced their shoes off to the duet song of ‘Kalza Thar’ of Kevin and Vanessa and then the solo Air Hostess dance by Vanitha Furtado with thumping applause from the audience.
During the show, the committee felicitated the artists and the DJ with shawls, plaques and bouquets. They also recognized the sponsors with bouquets and thank you cards.
Earlier, families with children came early to line up for the flower showers to Mother Mary and showered baby mother with a variety of beautiful flowers mother deserved and sang along with the choir ‘Sakkad Sangatha Meliyan, Sakkad Laggin Saryan’ and ‘Moriyek Hogolsiyan’, joined by everyone present. There was a special Mass in the Church in English with several Konkani hymns sang by the choir team who coordinated excellently with liturgy team to perfection.
The grand Mass was celebrated by Fr Christie and Fr Benoy, who accommodated the request to be the celebrants for the Mass amidst their very busy schedules and stayed till the end of the event.
Immediately after the Mass, everyone proceeded to the School Gymnasium hall right across the church to have hot snacks and refreshments before beginning the Musical Nite programme. The Musical Nite had the event hall with packed audience who filled the registered tables/chairs and had to keep adding more and more chairs to accommodate the last-minute crowd. The programme began and ended as planned and while many continued to dance to ‘baila’ music, rest of them moved to the Cafeteria where the food committee members have done excellent arrangement of line up of delicious homemade traditional dishes for everyone to enjoy.
A packed crowd of over 175 people at the event hall that consisted of community members, dignitaries, and guests from MCA-EC attended the event.
Dr Ajit Britto from Britto Orthodontics, Michael and Anitha Menezes from Menezes Vacations and Alka Kumar, realtor of Alka Homes, were the major sponsors for the event. There were also sponsors from neighborhood Indian restaurants who provided hot tea and delicious refreshments after the Mass, Saravana Palace, Hotel Woodlands and Hotel Godavari. Holy Spirit Church and School helped lending the venue.
All the leads and members of all the sub-committees of choir, liturgy, food, performance, and felicitation team were thanked.
Event Sub-Committees
Choir – Malin Mendonca (lead and pianist), Clint Almeida (Guitar), Merlyn Mathias, Savio Fernandes, Julia Dante
Liturgy & Other – Wilma Tauro (lead), Merlyn Mathias, Julia Dante, Juliet Vaz (Baby Statue/Noven), Anil D’Souza (Decor)
Food – Anil D’Souza (lead), Merlyn Mathias, Renita Fernandes, Reynel Castellino, Clint Almeida, Juliet Vaz
Performance – Savio Fernandes, Philip Furtado & team, Adult Dancers – Merlyn Mathias, Doris Martis, Vanitha Furtado (NJ)
Felicitation – Clint Almeida, Merlyn Mathias, committee
Event Banners with Digitized Logo - Reynel Castellino
Event Hall & Stage Decorations – Julia Dante, FantasyEH
Registration & eVite sign-ups – Renita Fernandes
Mass Brochure – Wilma Tauro
Program Schedule – V James Dante
Overall Coordination of the program – V James Dante
The volunteers who came forward to help with food arrangements were also thanked including Anil and Priscilla for spending a great deal of their time ensuring that the food arrangement was meticulously managed. Fr Tony joined later at the event venue and carried out the grace before meals.
The three presidents of different organizations John Whittle, president of IACA, Claudette Britto, president of Goan Association of DC and Clayton Monis, president of MCA-EC were also thanked for their presence. MCA-EC committee members and guests who helped where also thanked.
For the dinner, there were traditional home made authentic Mangalorean dishes prepared and brought by the member families and friends. There were mouth-watering Sambar, swadist moong curry, crunchy sonne sukken, homegrown bende sukken, Special tendli ani moi sukken, backyard sango beans, fresh karam made from taushen grown in our gardens specially for the event, rice, pickle varieties, very special Pathrodes and Mangalore only special vorn for dessert. People also brought chicken and lamb biriyanis to provide more choices. The food was served in the Cafeteria and everyone came for multiple rounds of serving. The lineup of dishes and the special décor done by the food committee and member volunteers truly looked and tasted the best.
DJ Vijay Furtado from NJ was also thanked for his work of keeping everyone entertained. Roshan D’Souza handled photography.