03 August 2015
Hyderabad

Philadelphia TANA team conducted Vanabhojanalu on Saturday August 1st, 2015 at Evansburg State Park, Collegeville, Pennsylvania. More than 500 adults and kids gathered at the picnic
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The attendees coming as early as 11AM and the event started with Indian and American National anthems. Speaking on the occasion, Ravi Potluri (TANA Joint Secretary) welcomed all the guests and highlighted the activities of TANA and requested all the attendees to support the TANA Programs. At the beginning of the event, Philadelphia TANA team paid rich tributes to Dr. Abdul Kalam, 11th President of India. Satish Tummala coordinated the arrangements. 5th Grade student Aparna Vagvala briefed the life history of Dr. Kalam to the audience, other speakers spoke on the occasion are Satish Tummala, Sambaiah Kotapati, Mallik Budhavarapu, Madhav Mosarla, Kiran Kottapalli, Suresh Reddy, Anu Tummala etc.

The weather was perfect for the occasion with picture perfect Park with lots of trees, greenery made it pleasant all day for attendees. Vanabhojanalu brought a Telugu festive look to the park and it was more like a family get-together, with everyone involving in i various activities from food serving to organizing games to cleaning. Several guests were seen around the BBQ grill casually chatting on different topics and catching up with their friends. Mouthwatering dishes prepared by TANA volunteers were another biggest highlight at the event. There was a long list food items included in the delicious home-cooked Telugu Bhojanam brought by TANA volunteers and served at the picnic. Some of the items are Boondi Laddu, Nethi Ariselu, Payasam, Pulihara, Palakoora Pappu, Vegetable Kurma, Tomato Pappu, vankaya pachadi, Perugu Annam, Pappu Chaaru, ulava charu, perugu pachhadi, Gadda Perugu, majjiga etc .One could hear guests talking about the tasty Telugu Bhojanam throughout the day at picnic. Everybody appreciated the efforts of Nagaraju Nalajula & Kiran Kottapalli for the coordination and thanks to all the people who brought the delicious food and made the event memorable one. All the attendees enjoyed the Nature’s beauty and after lunch were happily playing Antakshari coordinated by Mrs. Lakshmi Manda.

Sports Competitions conducted from 4PM to 7PM. The Volleyball finals finished at 7PM followed by prize distribution to the winners in the sports competitions. Prakash Battineni, Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator distributed the prizes to the winners.

Happy home founder Lakshamayya Garika attended as a guest and Philly TANA Team with the support of Prasad Kunarapu & friends raised 1200$ to the Happy home. Happy Home adopts HIV born orphan kids and provides them boarding, lodging, education and medicine.

Event team Ravi Potluri, Prakash Battineni, Nagaraju Nalajula, Satish Tummala, Raghu Yeddulapalli, Sunil Koganti, Gopi Vagvala, Bobby Yerra, Rakesh Kothapalli, Rama Muddana, Rajesh Challa, Hari Katakota, Murthy Chavali, Srini Bollapalli, Prasad Kunarapu, Krishna Nandamuri worked hard to make the Vanabhojanalu grand success.

Finally, the event ended with Vote of Thanks by Ravi Potluri. He also thanked other sponsors – Mr. Syambabu Veluvolu, Curie Learning Philadelphia, Hyderabad Palace & Swarna Jewels and the attendees, volunteers, media partners for making the event a grand success.