LEXINGRON, MA– Over 400 attendees assembled at the elegant Cary Memorial Hall in Lexington Center in Lexington, MA to help raise funds for children with visual impairment through the initiatives of Vision-Aid, a Lexington-based based non-profit organization dedicated to enabling, educating, and empowering the visually impaired.
The audience praised the importance of the work of Vision-Aid and gained an appreciation of the one-on-one hand holding required by its partner eye hospital’s skilled personnel to intercept blindness and educate children to become independent and productive members of society.
From the beginning of the event, the colorful setting of the Holi theme immediately buoyed the spirits of the people. The lobby was abuzz with excitement, laughter, and friends posing together for memorable photographs by Fotu-Duniya and Atul Nimbalkar Photography. The merriment of the crowd got in high gear as soon as the Din Check band started playing electrifying music that had the audience dancing and rocking to the medley of Bollywood songs, tunes of different genres and languages, all for the very worthy cause of helping the Visually Impaired pursue their dreams.
The Din Check Band on stage featured Jolly Bhatia (Vocals), Meenakshi Kulshreshta (Vocals and Keys), Anandini Sekhar (Keys and Vocals), Samir Bhambhani (guitar), Kamal Dasu (drums) and Mike Grover (base guitarist) . Guest Artists – Sam Rao (Congas & Octapads), Brijesh Dave (Dholak & Dhol), Neil Rana (Tabla & Keys support.)
This event was specifically dedicated to raising funds for children afflicted with Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI), which is the foremost cause of childhood blindness in India. The event featured a video that demonstrated the impact of the work of Vision-Aid’s newly inaugurated CVI Resource Center in collaboration with the most admired Hyderabad based L.V. Prasad Eye Institute and setup with support from the Palakurthi family of Boston.
Chief Guests Prashanth and Anuradha Palakurthi’s keynote address moved the audience with their plea for the need to support the children afflicted with the life shattering CVI problems. Many responded with generosity. The Palakurthi Foundation itself has assisted Vision-Aid in this first CVI Resource Center in Andhra Pradesh, in homage to the humanitarian efforts of Prashanth’s late father, ophthalmologist Dr. Krupasagar Palakurthi, who dedicated his life to serving the underprivileged.
A video of the very popular “Indian Idol” show featuring a blind singer Menuka, recognizing Kumar Sanu, after being gifted AI-powered Smart Vision Glasses, awed the audience with their incredible capabilities. These pioneering glasses that have been developed by Vision Aid partner SHG Technologies (Bengaluru) won the First Prize among 2,400 submissions at the prestigious Infosys Innovations Awards in 2023.
Dr. Manju Sheth, one of the founders of Women Who Win, gifted Din Check band members with WWW’s first published book “Women Who Win-Real Stories -Real Women” for the band’s excellence in music and collaborative work with Vision-Aid.
Vision-Aid Volunteer President Lalit Sudan, Vice Chair Veena Handa, BOD Member Sonal Bakre, BOD member and past President Syed Ali Rizvi and Founders Ramakrishna Raju & Revathy Ramakrishna,thanked the sponsors for their gracious support. Chairman Emeritus Puran Dang gave a vote of thanks to the Chief Guests Anuradha and Prashanth Palakurthi.
The success of the “Thoda Rang Thodi Masti” Event was a result of months of long hard work of the dedicated volunteer core team of Sonal Bakre, Revathy Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna Raju, Syed Ali Rizvi, Sanjay Kudrimoti (Fotu Duniya), Veena Handa, Anandini Sekhar, Jolly Bhatia, Sameer Bambhani, Atul Nimbalkar Photography and the team of over 30 volunteers including Shilpa Atnoor, Sonal Bakre, Shashank Bakre, Neeti Bharadwaj, Swasti Bhargava, Ati Pathy, Reena Dass, Revathi Pillai, Rekha Palriwala, Hiral Desai Wakhlu, Anurag Wakhlu, Veena Handa, Sanjay Jain, Vasudha Kudrimoti, Sanjay Kudrimoti, Shlok Kudrimoti, Ashkrit Mahajan, Monika Manocha Wadhwa, Prerna Mathur, Dipti Nagraj, Atul Nimbalkar, Ujwala Phene, Padma Reddy, Ramakrishna Raju, Revathy Ramakrishna, Ramya Ramakrishna, Rohan Rastogi, Syed Ali Rizvi, Viri Reddy, Anandini Sekhar, Sangeet Shrikant, Mayuri Shah, Vijaya Nelavelli, Andrew Russo, Sangeet Srikanth, Swaroop Vattam and 12 high school youth volunteers led by Youth President Ronak Wakhlu.
This year, Vision-Aid is celebrating its 20th anniversary of enabling, educating, and empowering over 100,000 visually impaired in India since its inception in 2004.
Vision-Aid is committed to helping underprivileged visually impaired individuals through education, training, and technological support. With a focus on inclusivity and independence, Vision-Aid strives to enhance the lives of the visually impaired. In 2024, the organization emphasizes its efforts to support children with CVI.
With this event behind them, the team is already looking forward to their signature annual event on July 21, 2024 in Littleton in the form of a Broadway style dance musical titled “The Dancers Pledge” which is set to rock New England with its innovative choreography and over 40 talented dancers participating.
