Dallas, TX, Friday, October 28, 2011

“Service to Humanity is Service to God” is the theme of the evening gathered at the Fun Asia, Richardson, TX as a part of the “Meet & Greet” A banquet hosted by the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) on Friday, October 28, 2011. TANA, founded in 1977, is one of the oldest and largest Indo-American national-level organizations with its charter to perpetuate, integrate, and assimilate the cultural heritage of the Telugu-speaking people of the North American continent into the mainstream of the cultural heritage of North America. This program is hosted in honor of the visiting more than fifty TANA governing board and committee chairs to attend the TANA Board meeting in Dallas.

Ms. Manjulata Kanneganti, Regional Director, South West, TANA extended a warm welcome to the visiting TANA governing board and over 350 local community leaders and guests in attendance. Mr. Prasad Thotakura, President of TANA reiterated TANA’s continued focus on serving the Telugu community with result oriented programs and enabling a new breed of ambassadors to bring the community together. Mr. Thotakura introduced the Governing board of TANA to the audience and emphasized the importance of cohesive team work for the success of the upcoming TANA conference scheduled for July 2013 in Dallas.

Mr. Suresh Manduva, Vice President of the Telugu Association of North Texas (TANTEX) assured TANTEX’s full support in co-hosting the 2013 TANA conference and introduced its governing board to the audience.

Mr. Dilip Kuchipudi, Chair, TANA Foundation provided an overview of how the donations are channelized to India for various service programs undertaken by the organization. Establishing funeral shelters, opening library in villages with the help of teachers and Principal, undertaking water projects and modernizing ancient temples are among the most popular on the list of service projects.

Mr. Lakshmiah Ponnala, Hon. Minister for Information Technology and Communications and Endowments, Andhra Pradesh, attend the event as a Chief Guest thanked TANA for its continued leadership in serving the overseas Telugu community and shared AP government's effort to introduce six new Telugu fonts. Ms. Manjulata Avula, former Vice Chancellor of the Telugu University, a special guest also spoke on the occasion and congratulated TANA leadership for its emphasis on protecting Telugu language. TANA leadership felicitated both Hon. Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah garu and former VC Avula Manjulata garu.

Earlier Mr. Ramaraju Vamsee, Managing Trustee of the Vegesna Foundation thanked TANA for its continued help to raise funds for the benefit of those in dire need. A short film showcasing the progress made by the foundation was shown to the audience. TANA leadership team felicitated the singers Ms. Mani Sastry, Ms. Geetanjali, Mr. Bala Kamesawara Rao who stole the hearts of the audience with a great mix of golden melodies from the yester years.

The festive and socially interactive evening coupled with excellent entertainment came to an end with vote of thanks by Mr. Ram Yalamanchili, Secretary of TANA to the audience for their attendance, volunteers who spent countless hours of valuable time, artists of Vegesna Foundation who enthralled the audience with their mesmerizing melody music, FunAsiA for providing excellent meeting facilities and tasty food and the banquet wine sponsor Horizon Travel. Special thanks to Mr. Venkat Mulukutla of TV9, the media sponsor for the event.