Gandhi center in St Louis organizes fundraising dinner

Mahatma Gandhi Cultural Center (MGC), in collaboration with the India Association of St. Louis (IAS) recently hosted a fund-raising dinner at its facility in St. Louis on 15th June. The event helped raise $50,000 for its various activities.

 

The fund raising efforts were for the center's structural maintenance, up-keep and renovation. The event started at 6pm with cocktails and snacks in a social hour in the lower level of MGC, where community members mingled with each other.

 

The dinner event started on the upper level of MGC at 7pm with opening remarks by President of MGC, Mr Anjan Roy and President elect  of IAS Mr Sendhil Rathinasabapathy. Dr. Vijaya Kumar Buddhiraju and Mr. Ashwin Patel served as the Masters of Ceremony for the event.

 

They articulated the history and current state of MGC to the audience of about 200.

 

MGC and IAS felicitated one of its founder members Drs. Miati & Sudha Saha, and Community Leader Drs. Sharad & Smita Parikh. & Drs. Vardhachary by presenting them with a plaque and bouquet. This was followed by pledges and fund-raising where attendees actively participated in support of MGC.

 

Dinner started at 8pm which was followed by a live musical performance, "Surmayee Shaam" by local group. Extraordinary vocal and instrumental talents of this local musical group led by Divya and Anand Navadikar, captured and thoroughly entertained the audience for over two hours with golden oldies Hindi movie songs. The event was a grand success and elicited an outpour of support and appreciation from the community.

 

MGC is a not-for-profit community center that was built by the joint efforts of various Indian-American community members with major contributions from Drs. Uday & Ira Dash with support of  Indian community at that time.

 

The center was inaugurated couple decades ago by then Ambassador of India to the United States, Dr. Abid Hussain, on August 19, 1990. Since then, MGC has been a very popular community center that is increasingly being used by the local Indian-American community of the greater St. Louis region at a nominal rental price for their personal and public events.

 

MGC also serves as election center and hosts health fairs, visa camps India Asso. and Balvihar activities etc.