Chinmaya Mission Diwali Banquet Raises $250K

The annual Chinmaya fundraising banquet held to cover the gap between the annual expenses and revenues for Chinmaya Maruti was a success with over $250 K raised within 20 min of the pledge drive. The banquet was held at the Wyndham hotel in Andover, MA. There were about 250 people in attendance.

The event opened with a prayer by Swani Shantanada.

Desh and Jaishree have been staunch supporters of Chinmaya Maruti from the very beginning. Chinmaya Balvihar then presented a song. The young participants were very impressive.

Naveen Aggarwal, the dynamic treasurer and marketing coordinator for Chinmaya Maruti presented the details of the budget. Chinmaya's operating budget is about $500K. It has about $3M in debt for the building. The goal is to bring the down down to about $2M by 2016.

Dr. Dwarkanath who led the pledge drive encouraged people to give any amount. The pledge amount grew quickly and easily to $25,000 with Dr. Dwarakanath and his wife pledging more than $25,000 for the effort. Within 20 minutes, with a set of loyal supporters including founder members Ashwani and Anil Singhal, the targeted amount of $250,000 was raised.

The cultural segment for the evening continued with a musical segment by the CMB Sangeet group. This was followed by a wonderful dinner.