NEW YORK, NY - Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation hosted a glittering Gala on Nov. 4 at the majestic ‘Cipriani’ on Wall Street here. The evening raised more than $2 Million. ‘Ekal’ has been raising funds in the US through a series of concerts. This gala reached out to the corporate world and high net-worth individuals.
The evening started with the American and Indian national anthems. Welcoming the guests, Wanchoo, briefed the gathering about Ekal’s multi-dimensional approach to uplift rural and tribal areas of India through emphasis on literacy, healthcare, integrated village development. He informed the gathering that Ekal currently has 58,000 schools, spread all over India supporting 1.56 Million children - more than half of which were girls. He further stressed that the project cost, including administration and monitoring was only $1-a-day or $365 per year per school. Patel thanked all the teachers working at the grass-root level in India. Vinod Jhunjhunwala, the President of Ekal-USA paid tribute to Ekal leadership in the US as well as the Ekal-India team, which had flown in especially for this occasion. Under Ekal-USA leadership Ashok Danda, Subhash Gupta, Ranjani Saigal and Ramesh Shah were acknowledged while for Ekal-India Dr Subhash Chandra, Bajrang Bagra, Laxmi Goel, and Naresh Jain were recognized. Ranjani Saigal, the Executive Director touched on the whole range of Ekal mission. Mitzi Perdue, heiress to the Sheraton Hotel chain and Perdue Poultry Farms, was one of the keynote speakers along with Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman of ZEE-TV and Chairman of
Ekal-Global. Perdue regaled the audience with three heartwarming stories about Ekal that also reflected the importance of education. Her speech enthused so many people that live mission-based auction for raising funds had a jump start with pledes process reaching one million mark within first 15 minutes. Three generous donors – Chirag Patel, Ajay and Ranjini Poddar and Sant Singh Chatwal – each donated $250,000 each. The evening was interspersed with Indian dances which kep guests entertained.