I deem it a great honor to be serving as president of the Indo-American Cultural and Religious Foundation for a second term. During my first term in 2006, I had the privilege of being a part of the development of the Ekta Mandir. As a diverse community I know many of us do not share the same backgrounds, professions, or religious beliefs, but I know that we are all proud to hail from the rich Indian heritage of our ancestors. As president, I hope to continue what has been a great history of bringing of our community together despite our many differences.

 

I would like to outline what I believe will help me achieve this goal. However, I cannot accomplish this on my own. It is all of you that make this community what it is and only you can help me bring us even closer. It would be a great privilege to work with all of you and for this reason I ask you all to please volunteer. My predecessor had a desire to bring together our children to participate in our cultural events. As we prepare to pass the baton to our emerging youth we are in desperate need of their help. Last year they made great strides to make this possible including having our children run an event completely on their own (Charity Walk). Which I am happy to report was a great success, but we could be doing more. This year I hope to create a youth committee and fully immerse them in the foundation, something I hope you all will encourage your kids to join. Please contact the foundation and let us know if your children are interested.

 

Beyond expanding our current volunteer programs, I'd also like to revamp our current infrastructure. Our foundation hall is in need of remodeling and modernization. My goal is to create a state of the art community center so we all have a place to gather and celebrate our cultural heritage. For this we will need the community to pitch in and donate generously so that we can proceed with our plan. I want to emphasize that the community center and temple are not owned by a few members, but rather the whole community. I promise to lead the organization with transparency and open communication. Your feedback is important to me and will help me improve the foundation as best I can.

 

I would like to get our sister organizations together to bring our community together. I want to recognize more organization as sister organizations. Using the resources of the foundation it would be a pleasure to assist them in growing their communities and expanding their events.

 

These past years Ekta Mandir has hosted many great events and it will continue to do so. I have enjoyed seeing the large crowds at Diwali, Navratri, and other celebrations and I hope that we will continue to see all of you there. In 2015, we hosted 104 events at Ekta Mandir and our calendar for 2016 is just as exciting. We continue to see growth in community participation which is something that brings great joy to my heart.

 

I am excited to be working with a very young and enthusiastic board of directors this year. I believe with their energy and the experience of some of our more seasoned directors we will create a foundation that is both efficient and innovative. We also have a very active board of trustees who will help us strive to be the very best that we can be. We are still looking for people to join our board of directors and I encourage you to call me if you are interested.

 

I would like to invite you to visit our websites www.iacrfaz.org and www.ektamandir.org for more information on our upcoming events, volunteer opportunities and donations.

Let's come together and make 2016 a great year for the foundation and the community it serves!