CHICAGO: Hand in Hand USA’s 12th annual fundraising dinner on Saturday, March 29, at the Waterford Banquet & Conference Center in Elmhurst helped it to raise close to $140k in donations for the organization’s charitable activities in India and around the world.
An attendance of 250 generous guests and patrons came together to extend their help for a good cause.
Following a hymn of invocation sung by artist Jayaraj Narayanan, volunteer Puneet Mansharamani welcomed all the guests and provided commentary to a video of the Balashram, a school for the underprivileged children in Odisha. The video highlighted the 11 acre ground of the charitable school and showed interviews with some of the 400 resident students, all of whom were born into destitute conditions.
Mansharamani recounted experiences of his recent visit to the school in 2013 and observed that many students were eager to pursue careers in medicine, architecture, or other fields. Later in the evening, a live video stream was established with a few of the elder students who shared some of their experiences and goals with the audience.
A cultural program then began with performances in the Carnatic and Fusion style by students of the Nritya Taranga Dance Academy and the Prerna School of Performing Arts. Aparna Prashanth and Aruna Chandra, respective artistic directors of these schools, performed together with a troop of their students, displaying their talent in four lively dance performances: Mahaganapatim, Faraz Thillana, Crystallize and Mangalam.
While the attendees enjoyed their dinner, entertainment was provided by artists Mukund Akkoor, K Raja Shankar, Thanish Rao and Harish Rao, performing instrumental music on the flute, harmonium, sitar, and tabla, respectively. The orchestra consisted of artists: Bhupendra Singh, Rama Raghuraman, Pavithra Anand, Praveen Jaligama, Parimala Prasad, Ravi Shankar, Sharanya Gururajan, Santhi Jaison, and Anusha Joseph, who sang a variety of hit songs in Hindi, Tamil, and even the Odia language. The festivities came full-circle towards the end of the evening as many attendees, in turn, danced to some of their favorite songs. HIH USA President Durga Chunduri concluded by thanking all for attending the event and for their continued support.
Hand in Hand USA, a US based non-profit organization, works with Prajnana Mission (India) to provide humanitarian aid through a number of projects in rural India and around the world. In addition to the Balashram, their other projects in Odisha and West Bengal include health care (i.e. health centers, mobile clinics, and mobile dental vans), and medical outreach (remote camps and seminars).
Asian Media USA
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