30th Anniversary Dance; The Wave Grows Bigger
Success at Ben Hur Proportions
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Iｎ glorious fashion, the Antissian Association of NSW held yesterday its 30th Anniversary in Australia and Mothers Day Ｄance at the Cyprus Community Club in Stanmore.
Reminding everyone of the Greek community’s hey day in the late 1960’s and 1970’s- when social dances were packed and there was standing room only- the Dance was a tremendous success on all fronts, whether it be attendance, presentation, enjoyment and fund raising.
Antissian President, John Loukadellis, and his Committee continue to defy the trend that the Greek social associations-representing local areas in Greece- are gradually fading in popularity (and numbers); what would have astounded any onlooker at the Dance was the great number of children (i.e. young families).
There was plenty of food, awesome prizes and non stop dancing from the 450 attendees at the Dance.
Highlights of the Dance were the recognition and honoring of Presidents Panagiotis Ersetelos, Dimitrios Kapetanellis, and Stelios Nerantzos, as well as a special award for secretary, Panagiotis Dalgitis, Vice President, Rosa Gialopouli’s recitation of one of her poems dedicated to Mothers. Towards the end of the Night, President, John Loukadellis announced the Night’s enormous philanthropic success, as members and guests had managed to raise $7,000.00 for The Exodus Foundation.
Above: Antissian Panagiotis Dalgitis, Attoney-General of N.S.W, John Hatzistergos, former Antissian
President, Dimitrios Kapetanellis and President, John Loukadellis.
“I am pleased to advise that these funds will be kindly matched dollar for dollar by the good people at the Macquarie Group Foundation, making our overall contribution $14,000.00, which is enough to pay for the education of 2 children through the Exodus Tutorial Centre and/or to help the Exodus Foundation feed and care for the homeless in NSW,” stated President, John Loukadellis. .
“A further $1,000.00 was also donated for restoration purposes to a church in Liota, near Antissa, making our overall contribution $12,000.00 to our community in Lesvos in the last 9-12 months,” he continued.
In such ben-hur functions, acknowledgements were made to all those who made Dance an enormous success.
Above: Plenty of youngsters had a great time.
“I would like to thank everyone in the committee for their efforts, all our members and friends for their support, our loyal sponsors for their donations and prizes (RESI Home Loans, Swiss Air (Australia), Macquarie Cards, Digital Press in Surry Hills, Cypress Lakes Resort, Vicky Mar Clothing, Harbour Bridge Climb, Pacific Building Management Group, Casadel Cakes, Belgrave Properties in Kogarah and many more who contributed generously to our event). Special mention and thanks to Reverend Bill Crews and Alan Lidbetter from the Exodus Foundation for their informative speech's and attendance and to the Attorney General of NSW and Minister for Industrial Relations, Mr John Hatzistergos, for his kind words and support of our Association,” thanked President John Loukadellis.