NATA fund raising touches one million mark

New York: The North American Telugu Association (NATA) conducted several funding-raising events in many cities in the US and raised over one million dollars for its mega convention, which will be held in Houston from June 29th to July 1st, 2012.

This is a record amount for a new Telugu organization in such short-time, said Advisors Dr. Malla Reddy and Dr. Prem Reddy. All BODs, RVPs, SC chairs, RCs, conference advisers, and chairs worked together as a team and produced results beyond our imaginations, said President AVN Reddy and President-elect Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy.The regional distribution of the amount collected so far is chronologically outlined below:

NY team fund-raising event:

In the NY/NJ areas alone, NATA team under the advisorship of Dr. Pailla Malla Reddy collected about $500,000 including the magnanimous $100,000 donation made by Dr. Malla Reddy himself, who many hail as the true philanthropic leader of Telugu community.

The NY team held its fund-raiser on March 9th at Akbar Hotel, New York. This event was hosted by Dr. Malla Reddy to promote Houston Conference and raise funds for the conference. The team collected a whopping$300,000 from local donors. Thanks to Dr. Malla Reddy's inspiration and motivation of donors.

This event was attended by 350 NATA members from New York and Connecticut. NATA President AVN Reddy, Advisory Council Dr. Malla Reddy, President-elect Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy, EVP Rajeshwar Reddy, Convener Jithender Reddy, Secretary Pradeep Samala, Treasurer Ramsurya Reddy, Jt. Treasurer Chinnababu Reddy, BODs Dr. Stanley Reddy and Phani Bhushan Tadepalli, Venkat Vaddadi, RVP Alla Rami Reddy, RCs Vikram Jangam, Krishna Maddipatla, Linga Reddy, Narasimha Reddy, Prabhu Goud, Sridhar Kumbala, Swetha Reddy and Vishnu Kumar Kotimreddy were present. Thanks to NATA Conference Finance Committee Chair Dr. Raghava Reddy Ghosala and convention team members Anna Reddy and Sekhar Konala for their presence.

The event started with a grand welcome speech by Dr. Malla Reddy and Dr. Stanley Reddy. President AVN Reddy thanked Dr. Malla Reddy and the New York team for organizing such a big event and explained the reason for fund-raising in his speech.

Convener Jithender Reddy assured that the conference team is taking all measures to make the Houston Conference a memorable event for everybody. TLCA President Nagender Gupta spoke on this occasion and encouraged the participants to donate for the Convention.

Singer Vamsi Priya entertained the audience with great melodious songs and RC Prabhu Goud entertained the audience with his mimicry. BOD Phani Bhushan Tadepalli and community leader Mahesh Saladi were the MCs for this event and promoted the fund-raising. Local community leaders from TLCA were present and donated money for the conference.

All participants and NATA leaders thanked Dr. Malla Reddy for hosting this dinner and making it a big success.

Dallas team-fund raising event:

NATA Dallas chapter has raised over $100,000 in a grand fund-raiser in Dallas-Fort Worth for the Convention. This event was hosted by Drs. Ramana and Jyothi Reddy, who cordially welcomed the guests to their beautiful residence in Fort Worth.

The event was attended by over 50 Telugu community leaders, physicians and business owners and IT Professionals from the Dallas- Ft Worth metropolitan areas.

Regional Vice-President Mr. Rao Kalvala welcomed members and shared his views on conventions and the impact NATA leadership has made for over 30 years to the progress of Telugu Communities in United States, with the enrichment of Telugu Literature, Culture, Music and Spiritual Practices.

Mr. AVN Reddy shared progress of NATA community services such as recently conducted medical camps, educational programs, scholarships and drinking water projects in India, and requested DFW community for their support for NATA convention. Convener Jithender Reddy strongly urged DFW community leader for their support.

Mr. Prasad Thotakura, TANA President, reiterated the richness of Telugu culture and the relentless support from Telugu communities across the nation. He pledged full cooperation for NATA events.

Dr. AllaSrinivas Reddy (BOD) appreciated the efforts of NATA teams involved in community services and the need and requested for the support.Other community members Mr. Ramakrishna Lavu (NATS), Mr. Gurram Srinivas Reddy, Mrs. Shyamala Rumalla, Dr. Pudur Jagadeeshwaran, Dr. Viswanadham Puligandla shared their views and pledged support.

Due to such great effort by the Dallas team, the DFW community donated over $100 thousands for the 2012 NATA convention. Over 50 members participated in this event, including Ramasurya Reddy (Treasurer), Dr. Samba Reddy (Media chair), Dr. Raghava Reddy (BOD), Sridhar Reddy Korsapati (BOD) and several regional coordinators. The team worked effectively in making this event successful.

Los Angeles team fund-raising event:

The Los Angeles, CA team held its fund-raiser on February 24th at Dr. Prem Reddy's guest house in Newport Beach, CA and promoted the Convention. With the help of local donors, NATA raised over $200,000in contributions, including the magnanimous donation of $100,000 by Dr. Prem Reddy, an advisory council member and great philanthropic leader of Telugu community.

A health fair and a grand star-night, sponsored by Dr. Prem Reddy, were conducted by the CA south team.Advisory council Dharma Reddy, BOD Mallik Banda, RVP Anil Errabelli, RVP Nageshwar Rao Ankamma, RC Veera Reddy and many others participated in these events. Many NATA leaders from other cities including Dr. Malla Reddy, AVN Reddy, Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy, Dr. Samba Reddy, Jithender Reddy, Rajeshwar Reddy, Dr. Sreedhar Reddy Korsapati, Srinivas Ganagoni and many others also participated in these events.

Houston team fund-raising event:

The Houston team held fund-raisers and the team is still working on few more fund raisers within the next few weeks. With help from local donors, the team is expecting to raise decent contributions. Several leaders including President AVN Reddy, Convener Jithender Reddy, Co-convener Harinath Medi, Coordinator Dr. Janaradhana Reddy, Media Chair Dr. Samba Reddy, RVP Manohar Medi and BOD Chitten Raju hail from the greater Houston metropolitan areas.

NATA board meeting fund-raisers:

A grand cultural program and fund-raiser was conducted as part of the NATA board meeting in Dallas on October 1, 2011. The meeting was attended by many BODs and all advisory members Dr. Prem Reddy, Dr. Malla Reddy, Dr. M.S. Reddy, Dr. Mohan Mallam and Dharma Reddy participated in the board meeting and inspired the team and the attendees.

NATA Day celebrations were a grand success. The team felicitated Dr. Prem Reddy and Dr. Malla Reddy with a grand flower garlands. Thanks to both leaders for helping to raise an additional $100,000 for the conference. Thanks also to Sridhar Reddy Korsapati, Rao Kalvala, local NATA leaders, volunteers and sponsors for all wonderful arrangements at these events.

At Washington board meeting, NATA has received over $300,000 in pledges mainly from advisory members, board members, RVPs, committee chairs, regional coordinators and other members. Part of Drs. Malla Reddy and Prem Reddy's donations ($50,000 each) were announced that day. Dr. M.S. Reddy & Shyama Reddy and Dr. Haranath Policherla announced $25,000 followed by several generous donors who made donations in the amount ranging from $1500 to $25,000.

Atlanta team fund raiser event:

RVP Bala Indurti and NATA team has organized a fund raiser event in Atlanta on 7/30/11. They raised over $63,000.The fundraising dinner was attended by close to 300 people.

'We are glad that the community responded well to the event,' said Bala Indurti. It was a team effort by a great team we have here who has diligently worked for several months.

We were glad that executive committee President AVN Reddy, Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy, Rajeshwar Reddy,Dr. Adisesha Reddy (NATA Foundation Chair) and South BOD Ramesh Appareddy were able to attend and provide the support.

We are glad that Sri Ghantasala Ratnakumar was able to attend and make it a memorable event. He enthralled the audiences with some of golden melodies from bygone era. The Team thanked Srinivas Reddy Vangimalla, Ravi Kandimalla, Srinivas Kottlur, Ramana Dodla Phani Dokka, Venkat Chennubhotla and Ramesh Duvvuri. Take away the other names.

Future fund raisers:
NATA teams are planning fund-raising events in Oklahoma City,OK (March 24th), Hanford, CA (April 13th), San Jose, CA(April 14th), Berkeley, CA (April 15th), New Orleans, LA (April 29th), Detroit, MI (May 5th) and Canada (May 6th).