Fun, Food and Frolic at St. Anthony’sFetebyMichael Ali The annual fete of St. Anthony’s was held on July 10, at thechurch premises amidst an atmosphere of fun and gaiety. The day dawned with alight drizzle but was overtaken by heat and high humidity by the time thestalls were set up.This year the fete was inaugurated by His Excellency, theConsul General of France and the Guest of Honor was the Most Rev. Benny Travas,Bishop of Multan who had especially flown down to Karachi for the occasion. Hewas happy to be among his former parishioners who were delighted to meet withhim. Rev. Fr. Melito also graced the occasion.On arrival the chief guest was welcomed by Rev. Fr. EdwardJoseph, Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Arthur Charles, Mr. Marshall Fernandes, ChiefCoordinator and other members of the organizing committee and stall in-chargesand presented with a beautiful bouquet by a young parishioner, Brittany Bob.After cutting the ribbon he declared the fete open. In hisbrief remarks he thanked the committee for inviting him to be chief guest at theirannual fete and wished them all success.Rev. Fr. Edward thanked the parishioners for their continuoussupport and hard work year after year to make this annual occasion a greatsuccess. The funds raised are used for various charitable purposes and in therecent past towards the construction of the new building of the MuqqaddasMariam High School in Shirin Jinnah Colony in the Clifton area.The chief guest then went around the various stalls, played a few games and partook of theculinary delights on offer. Later, the guest of honor also did the same.This year too the stall-holders put their best foot forwardand set up the usual stalls and also introduced new games and food items whichwere eagerly sought by the patrons who comprised not only of Anthonions butalso folk from other parishes and their non-Christian well-wishers.Some of the stalls which drew the largest crowds were theFast Food (Tony Almeida/Rita Gill/Bertha Silveira), Toffee, Ice-cream andThrift items run by the Vincent de Paul Society, Biryani (Cornelius Murad), BunKebab (Tony Francis) and the Food stall of St. Anthony’s School (Hazel Pinto). Among the main crowd pullers amongst the games were the NinePins (Judell Almeida), Lucky Number (Peter Mendes), Minute to Win It (Lectorsand supervised by Goretti Ali and Edmund Vellozo), and Ringing the Ducks(Agnello Noronha). As expected, most people on entry, made a beeline for the Novelty stall (Senior Choir andsupervised by Bella Coelho and Aloysius Soares).This year, too as always, Victoria Joseph’s Masala Dossas stall which serves up the south Indiandelicacy was very popular, as isnot easily available in Karachi.Other food stalls were Fresh Juice/ French Fries (Riaz Bashir),Lucky Dip (Marie Anne Croning/Cynthia Fernando), Cold Drinks (Conrad D’Costa),Eat and Treat (Rowena Pennefather), Haleem (Tony D’Souza), Hot Spot (NerissaNoronha), Sorpotel (Brendan Almeida), Tea and Snacks (Maria D’Souza/ LynetteD’Souza), Aloo Cholay (Yasmin John) The fete not only gives the parishioners an opportunity towork together, thereby fostering new friendships and contacts but also affordsone a chance to contribute to the raising of funds which are used for manycharitable purposes. The day itself gives one a chance to meet and greet oldfriends and acquaintances who they have not met for a long time.Behind the scenesWhat many do not know is that preparation for parish fetesbegins at least six months prior to the event and entails a lot of leg work andmeetings …Donation and Raffle lists are circulated and each one has to beaccounted for. This year the fetecommittee felt the need to nurture new talent so the responsibilities of theDonation and Raffle lists were entrusted to two young ladies Nerissa Noronhaand Serena Anthony respectively. The collection of advertisments for thesouvenir were handled by Maria Soares who was also the organizing secretary.Letters for products are distributed anditems collected. Government permissions need to be sought and letters sent out to the law enforcing authorities formanaging security outside the premises. Finally letters of appreciation are sent out to all the benefactors bythe parish priest. The setting up of the stalls etc and internal security werehandled by the boys of St. Anthony’s security and their friends. On the day of the fete several cashiers are required tohandle the sale of coupons and others tomonitor the cash flow. Finally, the CFO tallies it all up and presents theaccounts at the helper’s get together.So next year why don’t you volunteer to do something for yourparish fete?
