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Massive Attendance at CMLA Event 

3/18/2015

 
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By SONAL S  LADVA
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA -  A section of the Miles Square Park on the morning  of Mar.8 was awash in the color  yellow, with youth and adults clad in t-shirts that announced that they were participants in the annul walkathon that raises money for the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development.  

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The event was part of the  holi event organized by Chinmaya Mission Los Angeles  which saw a turnout of over a thousand people. 
CMLA’ Swami Ishwarananda led the group of walkers for the first five miles.  The walking path wound around other activities including stations for kids with activities, ayurveda and a sampling of ayurvedic teas while the green space had colorful yoga mats with bodies bending to Surya Namaskar.  Meanwhile across the walkathon site, crowds swelled.  Volunteers served a healthy and hearty lunch for all.  
The meal took care of the tastes of both the young and the more traditional flavors of the adults present.  
As people lunched in the glorious weather, volunteers scurried around  giving out CMLA logo t-shirts.  At the designated hour there was a mad rush, handled ably by volunteers toward the tables where the colors were being distributed.  Swami Ishwarananda along with Acharya Mahadevanji began the color fest with a loud “Holi Hai” chant and released a fistful of powder to make the air colorful.  In no time the air burst into a riot of colors with hundreds of people running around squealing in delight at being caught by a friend who they barely recognized. In Southern California, CMLA is headquartered at Tustin.  This event brought in a large number of its members and friends as well as from the far flung satellite centers of Brea, South Bay, San Gabriel Valley, Northridge, among others.  The crowd started to recede by mid afternoon.  Hard working volunteer teams continued to make the event memorable - distributing water,  making packets of food to go and serving desi chai.  Another set of volunteers meanwhile went about cleaning up: the park was left in the same pristine state it had been in when the event began in the morning.  


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