On November 5, the Avila Foundation held a fundraising dinner honouring Lady Thelma Hochoy, friend of Carmel. The evening started with the National Anthem sung by Jean Marc Tardieu, followed by an opening prayer.

Fr Garth Eversley O Carm, Prior of the Carmelite Community Trinidad and Tobago, then gave a short welcome and greeting to Fr Raymond Maher O Carm, Assistant Provincial of the North American Province of St Elias, who represented and brought greetings from Fr Michael Kissane, who unfortunately was not able to attend.

Fr Garth also welcomed Carmelite Sisters Antoinette Dickie and Petronilla Joseph, the Chinasing family of Lady Thelma Hochoy, family and friends of Carmel, and specially invited guests.

After, Tony Lee, Master of Ceremonies of the evening, called on Fr Raymond Maher to unveil the Avila Foundation logo fashioned by Derry Lee Loo. A musical interlude of songs beautifully rendered by Jean Marc Tardieu followed.

The next item on the programme was a multi-media presentation of the Avila Foundation displaying its aims and aspirations. One of these aims being to provide support in establishing, and developing the Carmelite way of life in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.

Essentially, the Avila Foundation acts as an advisory board of the friars, giving advice in specialised areas such as finance and investments, legal, strategic planning, and acquisition of property. The Foundation also seeks, through ministerial outreach, to find new ways of serving the needs of the poor and marginalised in our society.

“Elijah’s Bread” and the social outreach ministry of the friars are two sub-categories of the Foundation, which not only help in fundraising efforts, but also support the formation and training of friars.

In the near future, the friars hope to establish a Carmelite Youth Centre, as well as an Employee and Corporate Outreach Centre, both of which will be supported by the Avila Foundation.

The Foundation will continue to host similar fundraisers in an effort to achieve its objectives. They have also established “The Avila Foundation Award”, which aims to recognise and express gratitude to “Friends of Carmel” for their support, prayer and contribution to the Carmelite Family.

As such, the first Avila Foundation award was given to Lady Thelma Hochoy, a Friend of Carmel, who established the Lady Hochoy Home for special children. Mrs Chinasing accepted the award on behalf of Lady Thelma Hochoy.

Fr Gerard Tang Choon went on to recognise the Carmelite Sisters for their dedication to the children of the Lady Hochoy Home. They were lustily applauded in recognition of their service. After the formal segment of the evening, a delicious dinner topped off by a choice of desserts was served. Accompanying dinner was the lovely Christmas music of José y Amigos and Amantes de Parranda.

The evening concluded with a vote of thanks given by Ann Garcia to all those who made the fundraiser such a success.

On behalf of the members of the Avila Foundation, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who attended the event, and look forward to sharing with you the progress of the Foundation.