On the inside... The Whist Drive..... - Goan Association of New Jersey

2
Who’s Who
Elvis Proenca
Editor
Louella Menezes
Designer & Editor
Alan Lopez
Collage Designer
Executive Committee
Godfrey Gomes
President
Gladys Monteiro
Vice President
Allan D’Guerra
Treasurer
Valerie Moniz
Secretary
Cleta Lobo
Membership
Co-ordinator
Goan Association Of NJ, Inc.
Website: www.goanj.com
Email: committee@goanj.com
All rights reserved.
Association
Corner
Dear Members,
As we celebrate our 20th Anniversary
year, I would like to thank you all for
being a part of this Association and
especially for your support shown
throughout these years. This tremendous
occasion would not be possible without
the help from the committee members,
and most importantly, the hard work and
dedication from our past presidents
during these wonderful years, namely;
Valerie Moniz, Chris Nunes and the
outgoing Felix Menezes. I have had the
privilege of working and learning from
them for the past 15 years, as a member
in the Planning Committee and serving as
Vice President. The one shared quality
they all had was a passion and
commitment to serving our community.
As your new President, I promise to
continue in their footsteps, and I look
forward to leading our dedicated
Planning Committee in bringing you
exceptional social functions and raising
the level of awareness of our members
towards our charitable work for the
needy.
I must take this opportunity to thank our
past president, Felix Menezes, for serving
as president over the last six years. He,
together with his wife Vera, has devoted
endless time and energy to the current
success of our organization. I also want to
thank Gladys Monteiro and Allan
D’Guerra, our Vice-President and
Treasurer respectively, for their
continued dedication to the Executive
committee. New and pretty faces that will
also make up our Executive committee
are Cleta Lobo, as Membership
Coordinator, and Valerie Moniz, as
Secretary. Much appreciation also goes to
Olinda Gomes, our outgoing Secretary.
Rumor has it that she deliberately
resigned her position to become First
Lady!
We are sincerely grateful to Dianne
Nunes, who is stepping down as
Chairperson of
the Caring
C o m m i t t e e .
Under her
leadership and guidance, we were able to
help many causes in Goa. She hands over
her role to Gladys Monteiro, who has all
our good wishes for much success with
this position.
As part of our 20th anniversary
celebrations, this year’s Christmas gala
dance will be held at a larger and more
magnificent hall: the Royal Alberts Palace
in Fords, NJ. Music will be performed by
two accomplished bands, namely Prism,
our local group, and the Goa Amigos
from Canada. With great music,
wonderful food, and great prizes to be
won, this will be one gala dance not to be
missed.
Our next events coming soon are the
Whist Drive on October 22 at the
Presbyterian Church of Sand Hills in
Kendall Park and the Retreat on
November 6 at the Consolata Mission
Center in Somerset. Flyers for these
events will be emailed shortly.
Once again, I thank you for your
continued support and I look forward to
seeing old and new faces at our future
events.
Many blessings and good wishes, always.
Godfrey Gomes
President