Work An Hour for Education '99

6 weeks, 1100 pledges and over $50,000 raised: Work an Hour '99 was a phenomenal success! The Work an Hour (WAH) team built on last year's accomplishments and blew past the goal of raising $40,000 by August 16^th.

Behind this success was a lot of hard work. In June, Jayashree (Seattle) and the project team spent weeks to identify projects for WAH '99. They analyzed and discussed the projects amongst themselves, cleared the various doubts that arose, and finally, made their recommendations.

June also saw plenty of work on the WAH web page. Ramu (St. Louis) and Shailen (Berkeley) cranked away for a couple of nights to iron out all the kinks, and launched the website at 4 AM on the American Independence day. And what a site it was! Attention grabbing graphics, detailed information about the projects, a host of publicity material, donor statistics, chapter-wise break up of pledges, you name it, it was there!

Once the website was up, Neeta (Seattle) started the publicity working group. WAH coordinators from different chapters stepped forward to join the group. The synergy on the publicity group was cool! Within a few days volunteers had created posters, banners, a press release, and ads for the radio and TV. The website was the glue that held it all together: all the publicity material was placed on the web and volunteers from across the world were able to use the material.

Individual chapters got going at this point. Volunteers placed posters and flyers at grocery stores, restaurants, and social functions. Everyone did their utmost to spread the word. The banners placed on various websites were especially helpful in attracting online traffic to the WAH home page. From the feedback received, emails, word of mouth, and personal requests were the most effective ways to reach people. The chapter pledge meter whetted the competitive spirit of the volunteers: NYC/NJ ended up with 111 pledges followed by Arizona and Silicon Valley. Over 200 pledges were received from people who were not affiliated with any chapter!

Weeks after we all think Work an hour '99 has ended, the finance team in Seattle continues to collect checks, crunch numbers and send thank you notes. The WAH team is still collecting feedback about the event and will use it to improve Work an Hour 2000.

In Neeta's own words, "WAH '99 was an experience of a lifetime. The energy was immense, the pace exciting, and the enthusiasm contagious. Our spirits soared with every pledge we received. The congratulatory comments from our donors were especially heartening. It was something the WAH team will remember for quite some time, and we highly recommend it for a dose of high spirits, the next time around you need one!"

Work an Hour '99 proved yet again that Asha, with its dedicated and spirited volunteers, can and will bring about significant change. Work an Hour 2000 here we come!!

 

The Rejuvenate India Movement Dr. Parameswara Rao's path breaking effort, targeting Indians in the USA to discuss and resolve India's problems, has blossomed into a nationwide movement. The movement's mission is to catalyze rapid development and positive change in India. Volunteers from a number of organizations are participating in this effort. Asha volunteers, along with people from AID, CRY, IDRF, ICA, ILP, LFG and other organizations have met at various locations in the US. These brainstorming sessions focused on how to get people in India to act and what we can do to facilitate this action. As a first step, the group decided to undertake a cleanliness campaign. The aim of this project is multi-purpose: to build confidence and to gain working experience with groups in India. The details are yet to be worked out, so watch this space!

 

Irvine, September 22nd, UC Irvine Ring Road. Contact Rupesh (847 781 1724)	Volunteers from Asha Irvine will have a Mehndi booth during the welcome week for freshmen. They also plan to hold another awareness and fund raising event: a banquet for Professors at UC Irvine.
Kentucky, September 18th, Tom Sawyer park, Louisville. Contact Rajesh (502 897 5665)	Asha Kentucky is organizing its first major event. The cricket tournament is expected to raise about $600. The cricketing action will be spread over three weekends with six teams in the fray.
Madison, September 7th, Great Hall, Memorial Union. Contact Kamal (608 236 9852)	Volunteers at the University of Wisconsin will be participating in the 1999 Student organization fair. They aim to promote and publicize Asha at this event and hope to recruit new volunteers as well.
MIT, September 17th, Kresge main auditorium. Contact Anu (617 776 9096)	The air will be filled with the sweet strains of Carnatic music at 7:30 PM, September 17th. Prasanna, on the electric guitar and Trichy Sankaran on the Mridangam will be performing at the benefit concert.
Seattle, Weekends, Microsoft campus, Contact Maithreyi (425 869 8074)	Asha Seattle volunteers have started a basic computer education program for people of all ages. This program is generating a lot of excitement amongst volunteers and goodwill for Asha in the community.
St. Louis, September 25th - 26th, Forest park cricket ground, Contact Anand (314 514 9764)	Asha St. Louis has also caught the cricketing bug! Unlike Asha Kentucky, they plan to use the double wicket format with 2 person teams and finish the tournament on one weekend.
Briefs: Asha Cornell plans to hold its bi-annual dinner in September.... The Silicon Valley and Stanford chapters will be organizing their annual Diwali/Halloween ball at the end of October. They plan to have tasty Diwali food and live Bhangra and Dandiya bands at the event.... The NYC/NJ chapter organized Spiceweek in association with New York's finest Indian restaurants. This unique, weeklong fundraiser received widespread press coverage.... Princeton volunteers participated in the Festival of India program and had a very fruitful day raising awareness about Asha.

Students practicing dance at the Vethathiri Gurukulam (Seva Nilayam)

Work An Hour for Education '99