Successful and Fun Evening at Our Bollywood Night - Saturday 16th April

Our Bollywood Night on Saturday 16th April raised £1,115.83 so a big thank to all who contributed in any way.

It was hard work that started back in 2015 when the original plan was to have an auction but we changed it to an evening of Indian culture with an Indian buffet, music and film, and we held a raffle with a staggering 21 prizes to offer. We sold just over a thousand tickets for the draw and with 21 prizes the odds were good of winning one of the prizes and we had 108 people at the door all greeted with their own garland for the evening.

Mike with coffee ready to meet and greet the 108 guests for the evening

Thank you to all the people and businesses that contributed and helped to make the evening a success at the Mazenod Hall in the grounds of the parish of Saint Peter in Eastwood. We had a slideshow projecting a promotion of all the businesses, contributors, and the raffle prizes onto a large wall throughout the evening so that those present were aware of how the evening was being supported.

Most of the prizes on display before the start of the evening

During the evening, guests took the chance to have their picture taken professionally by Picture Perfect Pro who also donated one of the top prizes. This proved popular with the guests who had travelled from all around the parishes of Southend and from further a field also.

The run of tables ready for the range of hot Indian food.

The Ashiana Indian Restaurant in Southchurch provided the food for the buffet at a great price with a wide selection of dishes to choose from and they brought it, piping hot to the hall for us straight from their kitchen. Everyone was delighted with the food and one couple won two tickets to Sunday lunch at the Ashiana in our raffle draw. For dessert Liam had risked a frozen car that afternoon by buying a car load of ice cream tubs that had people coming back for seconds. Duncan with Phil manned the bar and were serving drinks all night long including Fairtrade tea and coffee as part of our commitment to our CAFOD LiveSimply work that our Council are working towards.

The raffle draw as it was under way

We drew tickets for the prizes in two intervals; just before the food was served for prizes from twenty -one down to ten, and then after dinner our ten top prizes with the flat screen TV being the first prize - just to build some excitement. The money raised on the evening is to be split across several charities that we are supporting currently, with the main benefactors being MISSIO, Nazareth House in Westcliff-on-Sea, and the Brentwood Ecclesiastic Education Fund for the training of new priests in our Diocese.

It was a real joyful evening, and for everyone to say how much they enjoyed themselves as they left to go home was good to hear. We tried hard to better our Jazz evening from September 2015 and I think this Bollywood evening was equally as good. Special thanks to go all the Knights present who helped with setting up the hall, working throughout the evening and clearing up afterwards. The wives were fantastic too especially with organising the men in the kitchen as the amount of washing up was phenomenal. We tend to struggle to take pictures as the evening progresses because we are always in the thick of the action and the same applied here as all the Knights were busy each doing their own particular task to keep the evening flowing as smoothly as it could.

Promoting our sponsored walk on June 4th

Onwards to our next event which is our sponsored walk for the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society on June 4th and we couldn't miss the opportunity to promote this to our valued guests (along with our Knights pilgrimage by coach to Aylesford Priory on the 12th June too; closest Sunday to the Feast of Saint Columba).

Thank you all.

Social at St Peters on Sat 16th April with brilliant raffle prizes

Raffle Prizes to be drawn on Saturday 16th April 2016

On Saturday 16th April the Knights of Saint Columba present a celebration of Indian culture through food, film and music at Saint Peter’s Mazenod Parish Hall, Eastwood, Essex. It will be a two course Indian buffet to include vegetarian options, followed by ice cream priced at £10 per person. Wine, beer, juice, tea and coffee will be on sale. 

It is a chance for people across the parishes with the Southend Deanery to get together with members of the Knights and to enjoy a fun social evening together with several parishes all together.

During the evening, our raffle will take place once all ticket stubs have been collated and placed into the draw, and then one ticket at a time will be drawn for each prize.

Because of the generosity of several businesses, individuals, and organisations, we have had donated a large array of prizes for the draw. There were too many to list on the tickets sold so we have had to produce a list on the internet for participants to view.

Below is the current list last updated on Friday 25th March.

There are still gifts and details to be confirmed which will be added to the list below as we get them.

If you wish to buy any tickets, please contact us on the above details:

RAFFLE PRIZES (last updated on Friday 25^th March)

·      42” Toshiba Television

·      Picture Perfect Pro – Professional photographer – Family portrait printed onto 16” x 12” canvas  worth £150

·      2 Tickets for a show at the Cliffs Pavilion (details of show to follow)

·      2 Tickets for the Odeon Cinema

·      Bottle Whisky

·      Bottle Brandy

·      Bottle Champagne (x2 prizes)

·      2 People for Sunday Lunch at Ashiana Restaurant, Southchurch

·      A Limited Edition Print (details to follow)

·      Bottle Red Wine (x3 prizes)

·      Bottle White Wine (x 3 prizes)

·      Tomassi’s Restaurant Voucher

·      Strand Productions – A Days Course – “Script Management” worth £200

Knights of Saint Columba Council 192: Southend-on-Sea

Charity Jazz Concert in aid of Saint Peters parish, Eastwood

Saturday 10th October 2015

When Council 192 voted to hold a fundraiser to help the parish of Saint Peters in Eastwood, our first concern was that the Mazenod Hall in the grounds of the parish is the largest hall of the Catholic parishes within the Southend Deanery. 

• Would we be able to fill the hall? 
• Would we have to strategically place the tables and chairs to make it look fuller than it would be?

We need not have worried.

We had our own secret weapon; the wonderful Sandy Rand, wife or our current Chairman Liam who spent several weeks canvassing on the phone to ensure that the hall was full to capacity with people (not just local Catholics) from all over the local area.

On the ground, many of our group were available after Mass at Saint Peters in the two weekends beforehand and the evening was publicised within the newsletters of the five Catholic parishes around the Borough of Southend. In the final few days leading up to Saturday 10th October, the numbers attending just grew and grew to the point where we ran out of the main tables for the hall. We ran out of table number displays that we had produced as we never expected to run an event with more than ten tables.

We had 128 guests which amounts to the biggest function we have put on for a number of years. It certainly was an interesting trip to the supermarket to get the complimentary wine that was in the price of the ticket as we must have looked like a couple of desperate chaps with a trolley weighed down with alcohol.

As well as guaranteed excellent music which we will get on to in a minute, we also provided free tea and coffee, nibbles on the tables and a stylish compilation of contemporary jazz on mp3 to get the feet tapping in anticipation of the show to come. The whole evening had a professional 'gig' feel to it from the ambience to the promotion throughout. We pulled out the stops to make it a good fundraiser for the parish even to offering free lifts to help people get to the evening and safely home again.

The band were called ‘The Southend Jazz Co-Operative’ and they were absolutely superb as well as appearing without charging us for their performance. A part time but very professional band numbering around the 20 member or more mark. Here is their website (www.southendjazzco-op.co.uk) and if you ever see them advertised as performing near you I would highly recommend going to see them. You will not be disappointed. 

Part of the pull of the evening was fish and chips offered within the ticket price of £10 a head so with a keen entry charge we had to ensure that we had a good attendance to show a respective amount raised which was also supplemented by the raffle.

A big thank you has to be said to Oban Road Fish and Chip Shop in Southchurch. This small outlet hidden in the middle of a suburban Southend side road worked tirelessly to freshly cook and wrap fish and chips for all present. We needed two cars to collect and bring all the hot food back to the hall and the fish shop staff looked shattered when the last portion was boxed ready to take. Everyone commented how nice the food was, and it truly was, but with serving teas and coffees plus all the washing up meant that those of us involved in the running of the evening certainly enjoyed the music but did not get a chance to sit and watch though the evening flowed perfectly. I only wish I could have taken more pictures.

When it was all done and dusted, we were able to present Parish Priest Father Jeff Woolnough with a cheque for £829.62 for the parish.

Why did we do it? Firstly, we knew that the parish needed some support financially and although the Knights are not a fundraising organisation ‘per se’, we are able to get events like this rolling. It was hard work but we enjoyed it and we are there to support the clergy and the parishes around us. Needless to say, the day after we were shell shocked.

(D Dillon 10th October 2015)