Buoyed by the success of cricket tournaments over the past 8 years and the Volleyball tournament last year, IDRF organized its second Volleyball
tournament in Burlington, MA. 12 teams, including teams from Greater
Boston area, took part in this unique fund-raiser to support poor and needy children in India. Each team paid an entry fee of $60 for participating in the event and IDRF received significant donations from sponsors of the event.

Teams of 3 were split into 4 different groups and were pitted against each other in a round robin format played on grass court at the Mitre fields on Saturday, Sept 20th. Winners from each of the groups proceeded to the semi-finals played on Sunday. Sportsmaniacs team with its strong all-round performance made into finals convincingly without dropping a set while Andhra Panthers team scored a thrilling three set victory over Nashua Spikers to become the other finalist. In the finals, spirited performances from Andhra Panthers team members led by Prasad Tadi made the second set very competitive but it wasn’t enough as Sportsmaniacs continued their spiking attack led by Ajish Potty and Abhilash Arutla. As a result, Sportsmaniacs continued their winning streak with the final score reading 25-10, 28-26 to become the second IDRF Volley ball Champions.

The finals were followed by the prize distribution ceremony. Chief Guest for the ceremony, Mrs. Rita Shah, President of Indian Association of
Greater Boston (IAGB) and founder of Saheli, distributed trophies to the
winning team and the runners-up team. Prasad Tadi of Andhra Panthers was
awarded the Player of the tournament for all-round performance that helped
his team reach the Finals. Mrs. Shah mentioned that she came to know about
IDRF during Gujarat Earthquake in 2001 and appreciated IDRF's continued
commitment to the empowerment of down-trodden and needy.

Narendra and Jyoti Popat of Hope Foundation were platinum sponsors for the IDRF's sports events this summer. Sushil Tuli of Leader Bank, a premier financial services organization was the gold sponsor.

Players and spectators were all praise for organizers for carrying out with perfection such a grand event. IDRF will send funds from this event to Ved Mandir a highly reputed NGO in India, for constructing Girls Hostel in Jammu and Sewa Bharathi, for purchasing a Mobile Medical Van to provide basic health services to remote tribals in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

IDRF´s mission is to support volunteer-based, honest and highly experienced non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India in serving their populations´ critical needs in education, health care, and welfare, without regard to religion, caste or creed. We request you all to join us in volunteering or help us in any way you can to support the ones who need it the most.

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