Dade Dinner Celebrates ABCD Donors
 
The magic of the holiday season was in full effect on Wednesday, December 4, when 200 of the Archbishop’s Charities Drive’s (ABCD) donors gathered on Palm Island, Miami Beach for the Archdiocese of Miami’s ABCD Dade Dinner 2014. The Dinner, hosted annually, celebrates and thanks donors for their continued and past support of the ABCD—a 10-month program scheduled to renew again in January.
Hosted this year by the Simosa family, contributors to the Archdiocese commented on the Dinner as being set out of a movie with comparisons to Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 adaptation of the Great Gatsby being the commonality.

Amidst a setting sun on a Miami skyline, guests enjoyed a cocktail hour complete with live music and lively conversation. In attendance was Archbishop Thomas Wenski who spent the evening with the guests of honor and the 200 donors, whose generous donations of $2,500 and over for the past two or more years fund his program’s initiatives.
Following the cocktail hour, a sit down dinner was served and a short program commenced. The program was complete with a welcome from the hosts, Armando and Maria Simosa, and speeches from Katie Blanco Crocquet, Chief Development Officer and President of the Development Corporation, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, and Albert Del Castillo, partner at Greenberg Traurig and parishioner of Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church. The 2014 ABCD video also premiered ahead of its parish debut to an attentive and receptive audience.

The 2014 ABCD Drive is a parish-wide call to action throughout the Archdiocese of Miami’s tri counties: Broward, Dade and Monroe.  The donations received from this drive support many programs within the Archdiocese of Miami inclusive of parish ministries, parish financial assistance, youth outreach, the seminary, and the ministry of Archbishop and Bishops.
This is the time to impact the lives of those around you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is time to make that difference now through your commitment and pledge to next year’s ABCD drive, said Del Castillo, in the closing words of the night. His words, once again, reiterated the magic of the night and of this season of charity.
 

More information on the ABCD Drive and its initiatives can be found on the Development Corporation website: http://adomdevelopment.org.