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The New Jersey Chapter of Akshaya Patra is engaged in
organizing fund-raising events and spreading awareness about the foundation. It
is led by volunteers who work closely with the foundation's main office located
in Boston. If you're in the NJ area and interested in volunteering
opportunities, please get in touch with us and we will get back to you
Raghavendra Murthy, Chair Email
Past Events:
NetIP Event - March 14, 2009
NJ chapter board members had an opportunity to represent Akshaya Patra at the NetIP New York NGO fair "Making changes: How today's Grassroot NGO'S are addressing India's greatest challenges" at Fordham Law School New York. The event sought to create a forum with separate panel discussions on Education, Women, HealthCare and Community development showcasing Non-Profits doing exemplary work in those sectors. Akshaya Patra was showcased on the Education panel.
Yoga Classes & Akshaya Patra video screening- Nov 2008
Sohum Agnihotri, a six-year old from New Jersey, first heard about Akshaya Patra from his father, Gautam, after the family received the organization's last newsletter. After he and his four-year old brother Shreyas donated their chore money to Akshaya Patra for Diwali, Agnihotri and his mother, Vishal, came up with a fun idea to raise more money for Akshaya Patra while educating other children about the program in India. The Agnihotri family organized a six-week yoga class for nearby children, with each child donating at least $28 to Akshaya Patra as a fee for attending the class. In addition to the yoga class, Agnihotri and his mother also showed an Akshaya Patra video to the students to illustrate the good work being done in India.
Jersey Rhythms: Indy Rocks 2008, Rock n Roll for
Diwali! October
11, 2008
Akshaya Patra was showcased at the 2008 Jersey Rhythms Diwali event held on Oct 11th in Somerset County, NJ. Jersey Rhythms is a popular South Asian pop music band from NJ who regularly feature organizations that have a significant positive impact on the society during their events and Akshaya Patra had the honor of being chosen this year. Mahindra and Rahul from NJ chapter, set up an information booth in this event and reached out to nearly 300 people who were interested in knowing about the dynamics and scope of the Akshaya Patra program.
A short talk by Mr. Bala Venkatesh, a prominent volunteer outlining the vision of Akshaya Patra and an accompanying video presentation in the midst of the proceedings also stirred a lot of interest in the assembled NRI community. Over 500 American Express Members project handouts and factsheet flyers were distributed to the audience who responded with positive enthusiasm and showed their commitment by pledging to vote and/or contribute to the cause. One of the event sponsors, Chennai Sweets volunteered to have the Akshaya Patra logo on their website (www.chennaisweets.com) to help promote Akshaya Patra and direct more webtraffic to our website.
Clinton
Global Initiative Exchange, New York: September 23 2008
Mahinder, Chair of the NJ chapter participated in the
Clinton Global Initiative Exchange at Sheraton towers, New York City along with
Madhu Shridhar, President and CEO of Akshaya Patra USA. They discussed
the vision of Akshaya Patra and espoused its cause to the members of Clinton
Global Initiative organization attending from different parts of the world.
Volunteer
work at Boston gala event, Boston: September 21, 2008
Lokesh and Rahul, core members of the NJ chapter volunteered
in the annual Akshaya Patra gala event held at Boston. They worked closely with
members of the Boston chapter during the event and learnt about the working
styles of Akshaya Patra USA. Mahinder joined them later that evening and
discussed about Clinton Global Initiative participation action items with
Kathleen and Stephanie. They also discussed New Jersey chapter activities, New
York chapter formation, future events and fundraising ideas with Desh Deshpande, Chairman
of Akshaya Patra Foundation USA and Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor of
Infosys Technologies.
NAJC Annual
Meeting, Plainsboro New Jersey: September 21, 2008
Mahinder Kumar gave a presentation about the Akshaya
Patra foundation and its American Express membersproject.com campaign at the
North American Jat Charities (NAJC) annual meeting. A lot of enthusiasm and
curiosity was generated among the members of the regional association to know
more about the model of Akshaya Patra and its kitchen locations in India. Ram
Arya, President, NAJC agreed to provide the contact details of the members of
NAJC in order to contact them in the future about American Express
membersprojects.com campaign and fund raising events.
India Day New York:
August 17 + 18, 2008
Akshaya Patra volunteers participated in the India
Day Parade at held Madison Avenue, New York City and distributed approximately
1000 Akshaya Patra handouts/Newsletter and American Express memberproject.com
campaign handouts at the booth. Press release content was provided to Sahara
One Channel, India abroad, Indian Express and Tiranga Newspaper. On 18th
Aug, Akshaya Patra volunteers attended the FIA banquet dinner and spoke to the
FIA board about organizing a joint fund raising event for Akshaya Patra in the
near future.
Fundraiser and
Awareness Event at Newport Pavonia : November 2007
The New Jersey Chapter held its first opening
fundraising event at Café Spice, Jersey City on 17th Nov 2007. Madhu
Shridhar, President & CEO of Akshaya Patra Foundation USA gave a detailed
presentation to the local Indian community on Akshaya Patra’s innovative model
and its operations in India. Vikas Galhotra and Mahinder Kumar, the founding
members of the chapter along with a host of volunteers including Vishal
Galhotra, Neelendra, Neeru organized the event and spread awareness about
Akshaya Patra in the local Indian community.
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