Indian Association of New Hampshire (IANH) celebrated the spirit of giving at its Dawat 2015 event on Saturday, March 28, 2015.  Suitably blessed with good weather and a perfect venue, Alpine Grove in Hollis, NH, started to fill with wonderful people of similar passion, who joined hands to help those less privileged.  

This year we have chosen a school for mute, and mentally challenged children called Badhir Vidhyalay run by Viklang Kalyan Samiti based in Udaipur, Rajasthan, National Multiple Sclerosis Society Central New England Chapter to honor the memory of Mrs Laura Laliberte beloved wife of Gerald Laliberte, the Office Manager of the Nashua Public Schools and IANH Public Service (including but not limited to Nashua/Manchester Soup Kitchens and Nashua Children's Home) as beneficiaries.

IANH organizes two annual fundraisers: Dawat and Nach Night. The latter is hosted by the members of the Youth Group. IANH is well known for the monthly lunch service at Nashua Soup Kitchen and bimonthly dinner service at Manchester soup kitchen. A new opportunity to serve the Asian community opened up in 2009 when a number of New Americans started to arrive from Nepal, Burma, and other neighboring countries. IANH teamed up with the Bhutanese Community of NH, International Center in Manchester and Lutheran Social services in offering programs to the New Americans. We have received numerous letters of commendation as well as proclamation by former Governor John Lynch in 2009 recognizing our excellence in community service.

Dawat 2015 like the previous years started the groundwork months before the event and it all culminated to a grand success on March 28, 2015.  Dawat 2015 is proud to have raised around USD 15,000 for the chosen charities.    

In an elegantly decorated hall at the venue, the evening started with people socializing and meeting up with their fellow community members over some finger-licking-good appetizers and settling in following a glamour photo shoot session with one of our photographers.  DJ Massa was aptly supported by Sweta Mepani, MC for the evening.  The duo kept the audience’s interest alive all times with some great music.  The event was graced with lovely performances by the Boston Bhangra Junior team (Samarth Desai, Siddharth Ganguri, Shefali Mangtani & Rahul Vaswani) and the Mangalat sisters, Amrita and Anjana Mangalat, who gracefully danced to a classic Bollywood number “Tum ko piya, dil diya…“ which set the tone for the evening.  Soulful melodies of yore mixed with foot tapping dance numbers enticed the guests to get on their feet and show off their dancing skills.  

A surprise rendition of a melodious Bollywood number by our very own lady with a golden voice, Anuradha Palakurthi, delighted everyone present.  Special thanks to all talented artists who took time out of their busy schedules and came to grace our occasion.

The dinner was an elaborate spread of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, accompanied by mouthwatering desserts.  The guests enjoyed the veritable treat in the company of their friends and well-wishers.

Auction of various items, generously donated by community members, was yet another exciting time for all.  Ranjani Saigal with her presence and charm worked wonders.  It was indeed quite remarkable how gracefully Ranjani motivated and encouraged the audience to open up their hearts and of course their wallets to support such good cause.    

During the event, IANH acknowledged the undying support that has been provided by Ranjani & Anil Saigal over the past years to this organization.  Both the DJ (Chetan Mepani) and the MC (Sweta Mepani) were also felicitated for their service during the event.  IANH was honored to have the presence of India New England News’ Upendra Mishra and Manju Seth, who recognized the winners of the recent India New England pageant.

Dawat Team wishes to sincerely thank each and every one who took part in our event. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their time, support and energy and being there for us as ever.

The evening also gave away IANH Service Awards to the young members of the community in recognition of the contributions made by the youth members by volunteering at programs organized by IANH and various community service activities.  

Last but not the least, a big thank you to all the volunteers, the entire team at Alpine Grove and Gurnam Catering. A special mention to the event photographers Saravana Meyyappan, Prabhu Elumalai and Jay Srinivasan, for their exceptional service throughout the evening.  Thank you to our media partners The Foundation TV & TV Asia for covering our event.

In the end, it was a remarkable evening, because of our generous sponsors, donors, artists and guests who made a positive impact and helped make "Dawat 2015" fundraiser truly a successful one.  We, at IANH, continue our work to support such causes in the community.  A quote from Harish & Bini Dang that summed up the evening: “Congratulations to you all for a very entertaining and meaningful evening.  Your hard work showed throughout.”  It is such encouraging support from the community that motivates us to push ourselves to do more every time.

To wrap up we would like to mention that Nashua’s Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant is currently donating 15% of all proceeds to IANH Dawat 2015 fundraising efforts when guests visit their restaurant any Tuesday in the month of April 2015.  We encourage our readers to avail this wonderful opportunity to help us generate more funds.  As they say every penny counts!

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