Bodhinatha shares these observations on the Donor Appreciation Event held in California on the 17th and his participation in the Hindu American Foundation Fund Raising dinner that evening.

Om Sivaya, everyone,

Jai Ganapati.

Donor Appreciation Reception in Palo Alto 10 AM -- 2 PM plus 2 PM -- 4 PM (Saturday, the 17th) darshans with those attending. We changed the physical layout so that the presentations were given to an auditorium arrangement of chairs rather than tables for eating, then ate on the porch on longer tables. Worked much better.
Events were:

Siddhanathaswami talk about visit to Jimmy Coleman mine
Bodhinatha keynote 50 Minutes
Dhamara Shanmuga on her braille work and creating the trilogy in braille in particular
Acharya Bharat from Oregon spoke on how he used our publications in his outreach work
Dr. Tom Yarema told some stories of his interactions with Gurudeva
Karti Katir presented his Ganesha clay fund raising for Iraivan
Easan Katir MC’d the event.

Deva Rajan’s comment was:

“Best annual Donor Appreciation Event yet! Great speakers, meaningful content, wonderfully orchestrated.
Though it may have gone a little long, we all enjoyed every minute of it.”

The video we produced was well received. Everyone was impressed with the vast number of projects/events that happened during the year.

Later in the evening 6 -- 9 PM Hindu American Foundation (HAF) Awareness Event and Fund Raising Dinner. I was the guest speaker and gave a 15 minute Keynote on “Working Together” showing how HAF’s advocacy efforts and our educational efforts complemented one another on different issues such as California Textbook one. Siddhanathaswami gave a 3 minute presentation on the HAF Hindu Heritage Endowments.

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END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Ekadasi Tithi, Sun Six, Thursday, September 22th.