SAN RAMON, CA: Spandana Foundation organized its 4th annual spelling competition “Spandana Spelling Bee 2015” at Windmere Ranch Middle School, San Ramon on Sunday, February 22.
“The competition was in two stages, written test followed by oral round. Top 50 students from 1st round of written test in each category advanced to the oral round and fiercely competed to win category championship”, said Spandana Foundation board of director and event coordinator Chandrasekhara Azad.
The event was a great success with 210 students from 1st grade to 8th grade from over 30 schools of Bay Area, CA competing for honors in three categories of Junior, Intermediate and Senior. “We hope to encourage students to compete and excel for a bright future while at the same time providing a platform for parents to give back to society and cultivate a habit of doing good in children,” he added.
It was a pleasure watching such an abundance of talent and fierce competition in each category with “Oral Spelling” segment often going into multiple rounds of as many as 18 rounds in the case of Junior category! In each category of Seniors, Intermediate and Juniors top three winners were awarded trophies.
“We also recognize and appreciate so much of talent and to encourage more students, top three students in each grade are recognized with merit certificates” said Hari Moola another director.
The event was graced by San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson and California assembly woman Mrs Catherine Baker. Addressing the audience Clarkson said that this is the 3rd year in a row he has the honor to be part of this event. Congratulating Spandana Foundation and students he said that City of San Ramon will once again recognize the winners of this competition at city level and award them with certificate of recognition from the city of San Ramon.
Mrs Catherine Baker said that Spandana Foundation is not only doing great charity work beyond the borders of our country reflecting true American spirit but also encouraging the local talent contributing to overall community development. She announced that winners of this competition would be recognized by State Congress as well!
Mr Giri Lankipalle, Director and Founding member said “There are three goals for Spandana in organizing this competition, fundraising for Spandana, providing platform for kids to learn, compete & excel and finally making kids aware of philanthropy. Participation fee of $30 from each student will help supporting 1 year of high-school education in India for the poor and deserving students”.
Lankipalle said, in the last 7 years, Spandana helped over 15000 high school kids and helped over 200 medical and engineering students in India for their higher education. He requested all the parents to involve in social service and make a difference to community both here in USA and in India.
Azad thanked all the volunteers for their tireless work for over two months to make this event such a grand success. “Syamala Aramandla, Rohit Tiple, Sirish Aramandla, Bheem Sen, Prasad Sabbineni, Sarat Popuri, Sunita Kotapati, Lavanya Penikala, Ravi Penikala, Padmaja Maddali, Shobha Moola, Rajani Lankepalli, Bhagat Aramandla and many others spent numerous hours for over two months to prepare for this event. We cannot thank enough for their commitment and time” he added. Hari Moola thanked event sponsors for their support.
Spandana Foundation is a non-profit organization working to improve the lives of poor and the needy in the fields of education and health. Spandana Foundation mission is “to help and aid the poor and the deprived people in the fields of Basic Living, Education and health by actively encouraging and engaging youth in service activities”.
Spandana Foundation can be contacted at Spandana.org
Spandana Spelling Bee 2015 Winners:
Senior category: Rutvik Gandhasari (1st place), Sujana Sridhar (2nd place), Sahithi Madireddy (3rd place)
Intermediate category: Anisha Rao (1st place), Adi Kumar (2nd place), Shruthik Kulakarni (3rd place)
Junior category: Shashvath Iyer (1st place), Arya Reddyvari (2nd place), Paluck Singhal (3rd place)
India Post News Service
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