A Halloween Happening at Villa Diva, Catalkoy

 By Margaret Sheard…..
Video by Chris Elliott…..

Halloween – the 31^st October, strangely this is not something I have previously entered into or enjoyed in the past, but I had my eyes opened when attending the Halloween Happening hosted by Mehmet and Demetra George Mustafoğlu at their beautiful home, Villa Diva in Çatalköy.

The event was organised by Demetra and her “A” Team to raise funds to purchase much needed equipment for the children of The Special Needs School, Nicosia – Lefkoşa   Özel Eğitim Merkezi and the Lefkoşa Özel Eğitim ve iş Merkezi.

Chris and I spent some time getting our costumes together, as this was definitely fancy dress, and our choices were Chris as a Samurai warrior and I chose to be a witch.  We were quite pleased with our efforts and when we arrived we were amazed, when the guests started arriving, at the thought and effort that had gone into so many of the varied characters and costumes.  This made the whole atmosphere of the evening absolutely wonderful.

The event was held at the rear of the house on the huge terrace and pool area and it was plain to see that a lot of work and thought had gone into the brilliant Halloween decorations which were everywhere, as well as at the front of the house where the guests entered.   I am sure I missed some of the decorations.   Thanks must go to ESK music teacher Desi Bastas for the brilliant decor and also to Ali Guler of Krystal Dekor for the beautiful flower arrangements.

There was a special area for the children to enjoy games   and treats and on the outside terrace the bar area had been decorated and was very ably run by Levent and Mustafa.  The music was provided by Latino Turco y Gitano with additional music by saxophonist Ivan Lavrentev.   In between dashing here, there and everywhere – Demetra later sang two songs to entertain her guests.

Nothing was left to chance and we noticed some of the members of the Civil Emergency Services Volunteers (CESV) were in attendance to keep an eye on the activities in case of emergencies, of which thankfully there were none.   I am sure they enjoyed the occasion even though being on duty,

We spied John Graham of The Little Society of Kyrenia (LSOK) who does so much for the young people of North Cyprus, especially the special children who need that little bit extra to enhance their lives.  John also has an interest in the Lefkoşa Special Needs School through LSOK so he was very pleased to join the Halloween Happening to assist further.  In fact John had been busy at Villa Diva the previous day helping with the decorations.

There was a lovely buffet dinner with a wide range of choices of hot and cold items and salad and later some very yummy desserts appeared.

The evening suddenly became very cool with a wind blowing from the sea and Demetra asked everyone to move inside the house to the Grand Salon and the musicians also moved their equipment and before long everything was set up again and the evening continued.   The musicians started playing a piece of music and 2 of the guests danced a wonderful tango, they were extremely good and had rousing applause when they finished.

There was a huge amount of raffle prizes which had been donated by various companies and people and the raffle took place so there were many lucky winners.   There were also prizes for the best children and adult fancy dress costumes.   It must have been hard to choose the winners.

Demetra has said there are still donations coming in which have exceeded their expectations and it is thought that the funds raised will more than cover the equipment which has already been promised to the Special Needs School.  When the final total is known we will be able to advise our readers of this.

A superb evening and for sure I hope I will be able to attend the 2016 Halloween Happening.   As a taster for next year, see the video below.