NEW YORK,NY- The week of October 6 -13,has a special significance in the 30-year history of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation as ‘Ekal’, hosted three fund-raising glittering Galas at three strategic places in the US and raised record $5.5 million in pledges. This was in addition to $7.5 Million it had already realized through its annual 50+ fund-raising concerts across the US. On Oct. 6 Ekal-Houston, TX hosted a gala where generous donors...
collectively gave $1.5 million. In similar fashion, on Oct.12, Ekal-Washington hosted a Gala in Bethesda, MD and raised $1.1 million. A year earlier in 2017 New York region had successfully initiated a gala for high net-worth philanthropic donors, and so all eyes were on magnificent ‘Cipriani-Wall Street’ banquet Hall in NY as the grand finale of this gala-phase and NY did not disappoint anyone. It raised $3 Million. This crowning achievement pushed Ekal’s donation total for 2018, way beyond $10 Million it had initially hoped for. In addition, what was remarkable was all three galas were completely sold-out affairs.
At the NYC Ekal-GALA, the presence of John Sculley, former CEO of ‘Apple & Pepsi’ and veteran film actor Anupam Kher as two key-note speakers was the highlight of the evening. Sandeep Chakravorty, Consul General of India was the Chief Guest of this event. Mohan Wanchoo’s opening remarks, after national anthems of US and India, set the tone for the evening. As the Chairman of the Gala, he touched on aspirations of village folks and what could be done to bring them into the mainstream. Chirag Patel, as the co-chair of the event emphasized urgency to transform villages so that India could tackle challenges of the future. Ranjani Saigal’s presentation of ‘Ekal’ was a defining moment. She gave several real-life examples of ecliptic rise of some of the Ekal alumnus in 10-12 minutes. Ekal India Team – Bajarang Bagra and Naresh Jain – was also felicitated. Honoring them, Wanchoo said,” we in USA only raise funds for rural folks but the real hard work is done by ‘Ekal-India’.
The pledging process was focused on supporting a variety of projects in the field of education, health and skill development. Inspired by a matching donation from ‘Sarva Mangal Family Trust’ to bring ‘tablets’ to Ekal schools, $150,000 was raised, instantaneously so that it could turn into $300,000 and equip 600 schools for hand-held ‘Tablets’. Chintu Patel, Co-Founder and CEO of Amneal Pharmaceuticals gave a passionate speech on the importance of supporting the eye initiative of Ekal which he personally promised to support in partnership with ‘Irada’, a foundation started by his family. As of this moment Ekal has 77,000 Ekal-schools across India grooming 2 Million Children - more than half of them girls.
Bagra, said, “the primary objective of this all-round integrated development is to give dignity and self-esteem to rural-tribal folks of India. For the first time, Ekal went ‘live’ on Facebook and Twitter for this event. This memorable evening concluded with concert by ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ contest singing superstars, ‘Bishakh Jyoti & Suchetana Sinha’.
At the NYC Ekal-GALA, the presence of John Sculley, former CEO of ‘Apple & Pepsi’ and veteran film actor Anupam Kher as two key-note speakers was the highlight of the evening. Sandeep Chakravorty, Consul General of India was the Chief Guest of this event. Mohan Wanchoo’s opening remarks, after national anthems of US and India, set the tone for the evening. As the Chairman of the Gala, he touched on aspirations of village folks and what could be done to bring them into the mainstream. Chirag Patel, as the co-chair of the event emphasized urgency to transform villages so that India could tackle challenges of the future. Ranjani Saigal’s presentation of ‘Ekal’ was a defining moment. She gave several real-life examples of ecliptic rise of some of the Ekal alumnus in 10-12 minutes. Ekal India Team – Bajarang Bagra and Naresh Jain – was also felicitated. Honoring them, Wanchoo said,” we in USA only raise funds for rural folks but the real hard work is done by ‘Ekal-India’.
The pledging process was focused on supporting a variety of projects in the field of education, health and skill development. Inspired by a matching donation from ‘Sarva Mangal Family Trust’ to bring ‘tablets’ to Ekal schools, $150,000 was raised, instantaneously so that it could turn into $300,000 and equip 600 schools for hand-held ‘Tablets’. Chintu Patel, Co-Founder and CEO of Amneal Pharmaceuticals gave a passionate speech on the importance of supporting the eye initiative of Ekal which he personally promised to support in partnership with ‘Irada’, a foundation started by his family. As of this moment Ekal has 77,000 Ekal-schools across India grooming 2 Million Children - more than half of them girls.
Bagra, said, “the primary objective of this all-round integrated development is to give dignity and self-esteem to rural-tribal folks of India. For the first time, Ekal went ‘live’ on Facebook and Twitter for this event. This memorable evening concluded with concert by ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ contest singing superstars, ‘Bishakh Jyoti & Suchetana Sinha’.
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