ST LOUIS: The Gujarati Samaj of St. Louis, MO., set up in 1984 with the aim of preserving Gujarati culture in the community, celebrated the Diwali Festival on a grand scale and with great bonhomie at Machinists Hall on Saturday November 21.
Over 600 members attended the event that was coordinated successfully by Executive Committee of St. Louis Gujarati Samaj. The event started with a social hour where community members wished each other Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak.
The dinner event started with opening remarks by President Jitendra Parbhu offering Diwali greetings to all those present. He listed the activities that the Samaj undertook during his leadership.
Thanking his Committee, volunteers, members and everybody for the support that he had, he pitched for the younger generation of members to come forward and give their time for the same. He said “It is important that we here in our adopted country preserve and promote our Gujarati heritage and culture for upcoming generations.”
This year’s big achievement is the donation of $ 250,000 that the Samaj gave to Hindu Temple of St. Louis to help it build a community center. It is also committed to help the temple raise additional funds and assured another $50,000 upon occupation of the building.
Both parties have signed a lease of 99 years. The community center will have a kitchen and large hall with stage and classrooms in 8000 to 10000 square foot area. Gujarati Samaj will be able to host Navratri and other events at this community center. Bal Vihar of St. Louis is also part of this project
The new center can be used by other organizations within the community. Having a center next to the temple will help the families to leverage the opportunity to instill more culture and faith in their children.
The event highlight was a live musical performance by Panorama Musical Orchestra from India. Extraordinary vocal and instrumental talents of this musical group led by Kanodia Musical captured and thoroughly entertained the audience for over three hours with golden oldies and new Hindi movie songs.
The event was a grand success, judging from numerous comments made by members and guests Shital Sanghani Mehta said “Wonderful Diwali dinner… Kudos to the committee and all the members who worked so hard for an amazing evening. Great food, decor and music and above all the spirit.”
Hema Patel said ‘”It was a great Diwali celebration! Good food, decorations and management to serve over 600 members. Thumbs Up to the whole team.”
Ashwin Patel
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