On May-27th, the memorial day long weekend when most of the families planned their vacation and family get away, 100s of Tamils, families of Tamil diaspora in New England Region gathered at Minefalls park, Nashua, New Hampshire for the 5K Walkathon. This is a fundraiser Walkathon to create a Tamil Chair, at the world renowned Harvard University jointly organized by Many New England based community and educational organizations Tamil Makkal Mandram, New England Tamil Sangam, Boston Tamil Association, Kalaimagal Tamil School, Kolam Academy of Dance, Kolam Media Creations, ShishuBharathi, Connecticut Tamil Sangam, Rhode Island Tamil Sangam, Bharathi Vidhyashramam, Lokvani, Abhyaas School of Music. 

Harvard Tamil Chair initiative is to setup Endowed Chair for Classical Tamil Language & Sangam literature at renowned Harvard University. This initiative is pioneered and lead by Dr.S.Sambantham and Dr.V.Janakiraman. The Chair will support teaching, scholarship and research in Tamil at Harvard forever. This greatest initiative has been supported by Tamil community of the world.  They have generated ~75000 USD from this event. The organizers says that this event is first of this kind organized for the cause of Tamil Educational and was super excited by the amount of supporters gathered and pledged for the cause.

Karthikeyan Ramu,  one of the organizers, President of Tamil Makkal Mandram stated that "Today is the day to remember in the history of Tamil diaspora in the country, that so many Tamils came together to walk for the great and unique cause. The Tamil Chair is not merely the setup to provide Tamil Education at Harvard rather it is the initiative will keep up the value of Tamil culture and literature for generations to come."

Dr. Sundaresan Sambandam, representing Tamil Chair Incorporated, greeted all assembled and congratulated everyone for getting together in unison to place our Tamil at Harvard for perpetuity. Tamil is the uniting force which is beyond caste, religion and country. He also stated that he was thrilled to see the support from the community.

Ms. Ranjani and Dr. Anil Saigal the dynamic duo entertained, energized and enticed the assembled to donate for the noble cause. Two brilliant young darlings, Selvi. Laya Ananthakrishnan and Selvi.Shakthi Kumerasan from Tamil Schools of the area, gave very brief but thought provoking and truly amazing talk in flawless Tamil. 

Bamiela Venkat, thanked all. Five member “Maanudam Parai” team from Connecticut came to perform and they did perform with with energy and electrified the assembled and opened the path for the planned five Kilometer walk. After the completion of planned walk, sumptuous food was ready for the hungry masses after the good work out. All the exhausted participants enjoyed the feast before bidding adieu to one another.  All in all, it was a remarkable experience which should be a model for other cities to copy and to follow up to stage their own version of Walkathon in support of Harvard Tamil Chair.More than the money raised, the positive vibe and the palpable thrill and the joy experienced is beyond measure.  

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