TIPCA Newsletter for November
TIPCA Webmaster
The festive season is already upon us! its unbelievable how the year has flown by so quickly! TIPCA has had a great year with so many exciting events all through the year, especially the most recent Fall Picnic!
PAST EVENTS:
Fall Picnic: On October 18, over 150 people attended and enjoyed a wonderful picnic at Titus and Mable Colaco's farm on the northwest side of Houston. Their farm is very unique since it is located within the Houston city boundaries. They have so many different animals and birds (some were exotic ones) on their farm including horses, donkeys, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese and peacocks. They also grow many Indian vegetables on their farm. After a delicious lunch we had many planned activities including games, dancing, bingo, singing, etc. The children were fascinated with the animals. Some of them had never seen live farm animals. The highlight of the picnic for the children were the horse rides and breaking of the pinata. The picnic concluded with some of us visiting the grotto at Our Lady of Lourdes church which is right across from the farm. TIPCA is very grateful to Titus and Mabel for their generosity and graciousness for sponsoring the entire cost of the picnic including the large tent that was rented for the day, catered food, Tombola prize money and all the other expenses. Thanks to the Colaco family TIPCA made memories that day! Special acknowledgement and thanks to Sharon Dacambra, Karen Miranda and Darryl Dsouza for putting together the games and all the other volunteers who helped make this event a super success.
Archdiocese events:
We want to thank and acknowledge Phyllis Mitchell who served as Eucharist Minister as well as our TIPCA youth - Karen Miranda, Sheryl Machado, Wayne Andrade, Sean Saldanha, Natasha Naik and Alisha Naik for volunteering their time to serve as Hospitality Ministers at the co-cathedral this year for major events viz. Silver and Golden jubilee couples wedding anniversary celebrations at the Co-cathedral, presided by the Cardinal.
Youth event: Our Youth Coordinator Karen Miranda organized a youth fun event at Sky High on October 25, sponsored by TIPCA. It was a fun event where our youth get to socialize with TIPCA kids and bond friendships. Thank you Karen!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
ASIAN MASS ON NOVEMBER 9 (refer attached flyer)
The 19th Annual Archdiocesan Asian Mass will be celebrated at OUR LADY OF LAVANG PARISH on Sunday November 9 at 3:00 PM. The church is located at 12320 OLD FOLTIN RD, HOUSTON, TX 77086. Please check the traffic route prior as I believe the Beltway 8 is closed for maintenance this weekend. This year the Mass will be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop George Sheltz.
This tradition of celebrating an Annual Asian Mass was started 19 years ago by Bishop Fiorenza. The Mass provides an opportunity for Catholics of Asian descent to come together to share their faith traditions, culture and food. Presently there are six Asian countries participating in the annual event: China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines and Viet Nam. The celebration is very colorful. Everyone is encouraged to come dressed in our native dress. If you haven't attended one of these Masses, you will find it a very unique experience. IT IS A FREE EVENT!! TIPCA and ICH (representing the Indian community) will be splitting the cost towards the Indian finger food and miscellaneous expenses.
After the Mass there is an opportunity to sample finger foods from the participating countries as well as a cultural program presented by the different countries. There will be a variety cultural entertainment program from all the six Asian communities. A big thank you to Amanda, Naomi, Christina and Genevie for performing a Bollywood dance at the event. Special thanks to Naomi for choreographing this dance item.
The Mass is not restricted only to Asians. Anyone is welcome to attend. Please spread the word to your friends. If you need additional information please contact Stella Naik or Mel Dmello or Michael Lobo.
Since we are not having our TIPCA Mass in November please come and participate in the Asian Mass. You and your children will experience a wonderful multi cultural experience.
TIPCA MASS AND ANNUAL ELECTIONS ON DECEMBER 14
Our next TIPCA Mass and social will be held on Sunday, December 14 at 4:30 PM at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 12627 W. Bellfort Avenue, Sugar Land, TX 77478. We will be celebrating the feasts of St. Francis Xavier and the Immaculate Conception of our Lady. We will start the rosary at 4:00 PM sharp (so please be on time), followed by Mass at 4.30pm.
The Mass and dinner is being sponsored by the Soares family. The mass is being offered for Maria Mussenden who passed away in 2007
(sister of TIPCA members Noella, Cynthia and Cedric Soares). We fondly remember Maria who was a vibrant and active member of TIPCA back in the days and contributed immensely to TIPCA by organizing fun activities for our community.
We will have the elections for our 2015 Management Committee during the social. Please consider becoming one of the committee members. We need some new blood with new ideas. All positions with the exception of the President are open for elections. If interested in any of the positions please contact John Andrade, Secretary, at john...@hotmail.com, or any committee member for details and we will be glad to provide requirements for running for a committee position.
CHILDRENS' CHRISTMAS PARTY ON DECEMBER 13, AT SUGAR LANDTELFAIR CLUB HOUSE
We are planning to have the Childrens' Christmas Party on December 13, for children between the ages of 0 to 12 years at the Telfair Club House, 2510 Ralston Branch Way, Sugar Land, Texas 77479 . The party will be from 11.00am to 2.00pm. We need at least 10 children to attend in order to proceed with this event. Please contact Sharon Dacambra at daca...@sbcglobal.net and Sheryl Machado at shery...@yahoo.com for signing up for this event.
ANNUAL TIPCA CHRISTMAS BALL
Our annual Christmas Ball will be held on Saturday, December 20 at the Afghan Hall, 11920 Hwy 6, Sugar Land TX. The ball will start at 7.30 PM. We are planning a lot of fun activities for the evening. We will be sending an E-vite to all our members. Please respond to the E-vite before the deadline and let us know whether you will be attending or not. After the deadline we will open the floor to non-members. All who attend must have purchased a ticket in advance. No tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets will be sold on a first come basis. Since we can only accommodate a limited number please get your tickets as soon as they go on sale next week. Ticket prices are $30 for members and $45 for non-members. An important point to note here is that costs have gone up everywhere and the member price of $30.00 per person is almost the same cost we would be paying the Banquet hall management for food per person. Additional overhead expenses to cover the cost of the complete event will be borne by TIPCA funds. Our goal is to make it affordable for the whole family to attend this event hence we are not raising the cost of the tickets this year. To offset the deficit of these costs we will be doing a fund raiser by selling raffles and novelties at the C'mas ball. Please note there will not be any discounted price for kids. Same price as adults will apply. You can purchase your tickets from one of the committee members, make checks payable to TIPCA and mail it to our Treasurer Nigel Pereira, 4127 Ferro Street, Stafford, TX 77477.
YEAR END REMINDERS
It is this time of the year to renew you membership dues for 2015. The membership fees hold good for Jan-Dec each calendar year. Please mail your cheques to our Treasurer. It is your dues that help sustain TIPCA and allow you to enjoy the benefits of fun activities that TIPCA offers you all through the year! We encourage you to be prompt with your membership renewal as we would hate for you to get dropped out of the electronic TIPCA distribution and miss out on all the notifications issued by TIPCA due to non payment of your membership dues. Attached is a form that you can complete and mail it to the Treasurer along with your membership cheque, that way we can update our records and stay current.
(See attached file: tipcamemform.docx)
Sponsors for 2015 TIPCA Masses
We are looking for Sponsors for the 2015 TIPCA Masses. If anyone would like to sponsor a Mass please let Sharon and Nigel Dacambra
(daca...@sbcglobal.net) or Stella (stell...@hotmail.com) know. If you wish, few families could get together to sponsor a Mass. The 2015 Mass schedules are:
Sponsors for 2015 Masses
February 8 - Lillian and Oscar Mascarenhas
April 12 - Open
June 14 - Veena and Adolph Colaco
September 13 - Open
November 8 - Open
December 13 - Open
Look forward to seeing you all soon and Happy Thanksgiving!!
Stella Naik
TIPCA President
Tel#281-762-7380