DIWALI AND FUNDRAISING EVENT 2006 - DALLAS/RICHARDSON, TEXAS

SPREAD INDIA - Dallas Chapter held their 1st Diwali and Fund Raising Event on Nov 11 th 2006 form 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm in the magnificent Campbell Center Banquet Hall in the heart of Richardson City, Texas, USA, organized by Dallas Spread India members Kiran Ganji, Srinivas Kuthuru and Ravi Venishetty . The event was a grand success, around 350 including kids and adults attend the Event.

SPREAD INDIA stands for Society for the Promotion of Rural Environment And Development of INDIA (www.SpreadIndia.org). SPREAD INDIA is a tax exempt Non-Profit Organization under section 501(c)(3) in USA. The Tax-ID is 80-0084590.

SPREAD INDIA's mission is to provide under-privileged children with an opportunity to gain the lifelong gift of education. We believe that education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and taking control of one's own life.

The Guests for the event were Sridhar Patel co-founder of Spread India, Sonal Shah co-founder of Indiscorps.org and Dayakar Puskoor, VP of Microsoft. Monicca Sharmaa and Sandeep Shah from Radio Salam Namaste were the MC’s for the event.

The Cultural programs were performed by students from Nruthya Shakti Indian folk school and Sunayathi School of Dance. About 45 kids and adults participated in the cultural program. The delicious food was served from Our Place, Irving.

The Event was started by lighting the lamp by the guests for the event followed by lamp dance and Desi Rangeela (Fanna) Dance. Keynote speakers for the event were Sonal Shah (co-founder of IndiCorps.org) and Mr. Dayakar Puskoor (VP - Microsoft).

Monicca Sharma started the event by introducing the co-founder of SPREAD INDIA, Sridhar Patel. As you might know, Sridhar founded SPREAD INDIA in 2003 with a group of like minded NRIs. He hails from Balemla village in Suryapet Mandal, Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh. He has been spearheading the great cause of SPREAD INDIA with a motto to develop rural India focusing on education.

Sridhar Patel started his speech by thanking every body for attending the event. He also thanked all the volunteers for their restless hard work for arranging this event. He expressed his deepest appreciation for SPREAD INDIA Board of Directors, executive members, all the regional coordinators all over the USA, all the volunteers, and the team in India for their commitment, dedication, and hard work in serving the underprivileged through SPREAD INDIA. He made a power point presentation about the SPREAD INDIA org, its activities, achievements, and process. Please click here for power point presentation.

Sandeep Shah introduced Sonal Shah. Sonal is co-founder of Indicorps, a U.S.-based non-profit organization, which offers one-year fellowships for Americans of Indian origin to work on development projects in India. In 2005, she was invited to be a participant at President Clinton’s bi-partisan Global Initiative Conference. Sonal was selected as Henry Crown Fellows by the Aspen Institute in 2006. She serves on the board of NetAid, US-UNDP, and Synapse. Sonal has her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and an M.S. from Duke University. .... more

Sonal Shah passionately spoke about need to plunge into Rural India development. She gave many examples on how a child can be saved from proverty and backwardness by NRIs by contributing a little time and small amounts from their income.

Commending the efforts of Spread India team, Sonal Shah said that every NRI should emulate the spirit of Spread India and rededicate them to serve the underprivileged back home in India. She was very much fascinated by the projects executed by Spread India. While commenting on the literacy drive taken up by Spread India team, Sonal shah said that investment on education will pave a long way in building a better India and act as a catalyst for the all round economic development. Analyzing the life style and pattern of the underprivileged children, she said that the poor parents tend to send their kids as child laborers because it feeds their families. If we can provide enough food and other necessities for the poor families, then they can think of sending their children to school. With this gift of education they can break the cycle of poverty and its concomitant effects on their life. She appreciated the foresight of Spread India team in understanding the real problem and providing very practical solutions.

While commenting on the Indian life, she said, "the essence of India isn’t the dirty streets, it is not the bathrooms that are not working, the essence of the India is the people that are living in India. In order to understand that you need to live it and breathe it"

She also mentioned about "Namaste". Namaste is the light within me recognizes the light within you. When both of us are at the same place, at the same time we are one." She said that it’s an interesting quote because we say that every single time when we meet somebody whether we are in India or we are in here we say Namaste. When you think about it, It looks beyond color, it looks beyond cast and it looks beyond everything you are recognizing the light within someone, and you recognizes that. When each of us looks with each other with that light we are one person and we are the same person. And there is no difference at that point. It doesn’t matter how much money I have or it doesn’t matter how much more I have the fact is that we are one individual person. We are all living in the same life and we all live in the same world, all facing exact same challenges.

Finally, Sonal pointed out that every single person is here because we have been educated by India. You benefited from India, give something back to India. Don’t worry about every single dollar perfectly spent; we have wasted 50 dollars on dinner. You give a dollar a day, a dollar a day you give makes 365 dollars a year can put a child in school for one year and allows a mother to buy food, clothes to this kid that brings the light in that kid's future.

Concluding the speach, Sonali said "I leave you with namaste again, think about what India has given to you, the value that India has given, understand the essence of India."

Monicca Sharmaa introduced Dayakar Puskoor. Dayakar has lead JP Mobile towards its successful acquisition by the Santa Clara based Good Technology Inc. At JP Mobile, he lead the company pioneer as the industry's first mobile software development that set industry benchmarks with its scalable software architecture extending and managing corporate data on handhelds. .... more

Dayakar started with his personal experiences in his childhood. He lost his father at a young age. He was thankful to village community for stepping up in getting him thru' education. Having come from a humble village background, Dayaker, who now is a VP Microsoft, made it a priority to stay connected with his village. His kids also visit the village and successfully coaxed Dayaker into donating his childhood home for a hospital. He also made a pledge to adopt one more village at the Spread India Event.

There was SPREAD INDIA Video (when you click on Video it may take a few seconds to download) presented detailing about rural India people life style, problems what they are facing in their day to day life, and how SPREAD INDIA projects are helping them.

Fundraiser was kicked off with Monicca Sharma, and Sandeep Shah motivating the audience with their experiences and interacting with the audience. There was a total amount of $20,000 raised in donations, and pledges through many generous donors.

Delicious food was served from Our Place restaurant.

The Cultural programs for the event were organized by "NRUTHYA SHAKTI INDIAN FOLK SCHOOL" & "SUNAYATHI SCHOOL OF DANCE" promoting Indian classical dance. Around 40 students presented excellent lineup of Indian dances.

Finally, SPREAD INDIA Dallas regional coordinator, Ravi Venishetty presented vote of thanks to all the volunteers, guest speakers and attendees for making the event a grand success.

• Many underprivileged kids could go to school with our help, otherwise they would have ended up a child labor.


• Many underprivileged kids could sit in the classroom with our hlep, otherwise they would have ended up sitting under the tree.
• Many underprivileged kids could sit on the benchs with our hlep, otherwise they would have ended up sitting on the floor.


• Many poor rank kids could able pay their college expenses with scholarship awards, otherwise thery would have dropped the college.

SPREAD INDIA is a non-profit tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) in USA, and SPREAD is tax-exempt organization under section 80G in India. All your contributions would be tax deductible in USA, and in India

Please write a check payable to: "SPREAD INDIA" in USA and "SPREAD" in India and mail it to the following address:

In the United States: SPREAD INDIA, 29531 Greenboro Farmington Hills, MI, USA - 48334		In India: SPREAD, H. No. 1-1-556, Anjanapuri colony Mandal: Suryapet District: Nalgonda State: Andhra Pradesh India 508213

SPREAD INDIA has a simplified and secure online donation process for credit card payments through paypal system. SPREAD INDIA website provides a user-friendly interface for online donations, an access to our activities, and projects information.

If you have any questions, please contact us

Please find out if your company participates in matching donations.