BY SONAM MIRPURI
BUENA PARK, CA - The Organization of Hindu Malayalees (OHM) hosted an event to celebrate Diwali and Educate A Kid’s 11th anniversary at the Amaya Restaurant here on Nov. 5. It was an evening filled with speeches and a variety of other entertainment to raise awareness and raise funds for an amazing cause.
BUENA PARK, CA - The Organization of Hindu Malayalees (OHM) hosted an event to celebrate Diwali and Educate A Kid’s 11th anniversary at the Amaya Restaurant here on Nov. 5. It was an evening filled with speeches and a variety of other entertainment to raise awareness and raise funds for an amazing cause.
Managed under OHM, Educate A Kid is an establishment which “helps the poorest of the poor bright students achieve their goals in obtaining a higher degree so they can rise from poverty and help their family,” said Ravi Vellatheri, Director of Public Relations.
The goal of raising $50,000 was achieved by the end of the evening, bringing the total collection as of date to $260,000.
The event began with emcees for the evening Vivek Babuleyan and Nithya Menon coming on stage to introduce themselves. The program started with a prayer to the Goddess Saraswathi by. Anjali Ghosh who sang the prayer. Following this was the lamp lighting ceremony performed by Rema Nair, President of OHM.
In an attempt to keep things interesting and the audience intrigued, the emcees asked audience members trivia questions about Educated A Kid at random.Those who correctly screamed out the answer received a prize.
Sanjaye Elayattu, Educte A Kid Chair and OHM Board Member, came on stage to give a welcome address thanking the audience for coming and requesting them to donate for this noble cause.
Maintaining a sense of balance between speeches and entertainment, it was time to bring on the singing group “Let’s Sing” who came on stage to perform. Kasturi Venkateswaran, key note speaker of the evening, began with a video presentation. Venkateswaran praised the efforts of Educate A Kid to help and promote education of talented youth to achieve their dreams. Towards the end, Venkateswaran made an interesting statement. “Education is never complete and we learn something new every day,” he said as his concluding point. Then it was time for entertainment again. This time, Rishi Illapakurthi performed a Bollywood dance to two recent hit tracks after which “Let’s Sing” performed a few old and new Bollywood hits and much appreciated Tamil and Malayalee numbers. The announcement of the much awaited raffle prize winners followed. Ticket numbers were called upon and the winners received prizes like a sari, necklace, movie tickets among others.
Another interesting feature of the evening was a competition for the best dressed female, male, and couple. The winners of this competition were Anup Roshan; Vimal Ghosh; and Lucy and Baburaj Dharan, respectively. Plaques and ‘ponnadas’ were presented to all the gold and silver sponsors of the event by Rema Nair, Elayattu, and Jayachandan Nair, co-chair Educate A Kid. Rema Nair personally gave the plaque to Srilata Vijayalakshmi on behalf of UST Global. Additionally, a plaque was presented to KP Hari from Speridian. The other gold and silver sponsors were not able to attend the event. The vote of thanks was given by Vinodh Babuleyan, Secretary of OHM, who expressed appreciation to everyone who came and supported the cause.
The goal of raising $50,000 was achieved by the end of the evening, bringing the total collection as of date to $260,000.
The event began with emcees for the evening Vivek Babuleyan and Nithya Menon coming on stage to introduce themselves. The program started with a prayer to the Goddess Saraswathi by. Anjali Ghosh who sang the prayer. Following this was the lamp lighting ceremony performed by Rema Nair, President of OHM.
In an attempt to keep things interesting and the audience intrigued, the emcees asked audience members trivia questions about Educated A Kid at random.Those who correctly screamed out the answer received a prize.
Sanjaye Elayattu, Educte A Kid Chair and OHM Board Member, came on stage to give a welcome address thanking the audience for coming and requesting them to donate for this noble cause.
Maintaining a sense of balance between speeches and entertainment, it was time to bring on the singing group “Let’s Sing” who came on stage to perform. Kasturi Venkateswaran, key note speaker of the evening, began with a video presentation. Venkateswaran praised the efforts of Educate A Kid to help and promote education of talented youth to achieve their dreams. Towards the end, Venkateswaran made an interesting statement. “Education is never complete and we learn something new every day,” he said as his concluding point. Then it was time for entertainment again. This time, Rishi Illapakurthi performed a Bollywood dance to two recent hit tracks after which “Let’s Sing” performed a few old and new Bollywood hits and much appreciated Tamil and Malayalee numbers. The announcement of the much awaited raffle prize winners followed. Ticket numbers were called upon and the winners received prizes like a sari, necklace, movie tickets among others.
Another interesting feature of the evening was a competition for the best dressed female, male, and couple. The winners of this competition were Anup Roshan; Vimal Ghosh; and Lucy and Baburaj Dharan, respectively. Plaques and ‘ponnadas’ were presented to all the gold and silver sponsors of the event by Rema Nair, Elayattu, and Jayachandan Nair, co-chair Educate A Kid. Rema Nair personally gave the plaque to Srilata Vijayalakshmi on behalf of UST Global. Additionally, a plaque was presented to KP Hari from Speridian. The other gold and silver sponsors were not able to attend the event. The vote of thanks was given by Vinodh Babuleyan, Secretary of OHM, who expressed appreciation to everyone who came and supported the cause.
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