MEMBERS of Yesterday’s Jovens St Patrick’s pulled off a miracle to raise just over R80 000 during a fundraiser, themed ‘Carnival’, held in Regents Park. The fun-filled event took place on Saturday, April 9, at the Nucleo de Arte e Cultura.
The organisers sent out many invitations, including to people they had not seen for more than 20 years.
The fundraiser was a success, yielding an impressive R80 437.76 while costing just R6 457.24 to organise. The group members were particularly proud of this achievement, they said during the handover ceremony on Thursday, April 14.
Yesterday’s Jovens St. Patrick’s donated a generous R40 218.88 to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church La Rochelle, to help them maintain the church and their charity initiatives. A sum of R20 109.44 was donated to the Mother Teresa Group to assist them in providing the needy with food, clothing and blankets. Another R20 109.44 was donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.
The food left over from the function was donated to the Moffatview Old Age Home, Look Forward Creative Centre, Child’s Haven and Bienvenu Shelter in Bertrams.
In the fancy-dress competition, the women’s category was won by Analiza Lousada for her Little Red Riding Hood costume. Rui de Sousa won in the men’s category for his Special Servant outfit. Best-dressed couple went to the “Draculas” (Tony Rodrigues and Angelica Williams), while best-dressed family was won by Family Contente – José and Adelaide Contente with their granddaughter and grandson, all in Arabian outfits.
“The Portuguese past youth group members reached out to our community and all those that belonged to the past youth groups of St. Patrick’s and they came and joined us on this very special evening. It was a night to remember, full of dance, food and laughter,” said Paul Amaro from Yesterday’s Jovens St Patrick’s. The most important part, he said, was “the opportunity to come together to raise monies to make life better for those less fortunate than us, within our community”.
“We sincerely thank all the patrons who came to support the fundraiser, and the kitchen that was run by Jose dos Anjos.”
