AURUM- a treasure hunt for charity.

AURUM – a treasure hunt for charity

The Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East organized their signature fund raiser AURUM on October 24h 2010.Aurum is a city wide treasure hunt conducted annually by the club. 2010 being the 3rd consecutive year Aurum is being conducted. Though on the day before the event the city witnessed heavy rainfall, this did not dampen the spirit of the members or the participants. Sunday morning witnessed a successful event and thus was a bright day for the Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East.

The concept underlying the treasure hunt is very simple. Each team consists of four participants. The teams are given clues that lead to the various checkpoints in the twin cities and a list of treasures which they have to collect on the way. The team to reach maximum number of correct checkpoints and collect the treasures within the least time wins.

The starting point was Jalavihar, necklace road. The participants arrived by 10:30 am. The members handled registrations and refreshments for all participants. There were participants of all age groups. The 1st flag off was done by the President of the club for the year 2010, Ms. Kedari Reddy at 11am. There were a total of 57 cars and nearly 235 people who took part in this event. At 12 pm when the last team left, all the members proceeded to the end spot, Blend located in Jubilee Hills.

As the participants were cracking the clues, the members rushed to the end point to make arrangements for evaluation of results. At 1 pm after the clues were decoded and treasures were collected cars started arriving at the end point. Every team reached the end with great enthuse and anxiousness about the results. While the results were being compiled by the members, the participants enjoyed music and refreshments. As the result time came closer, the anxiousness grew. When team number 11 was announced the winner, their cheers bought the roof down. There were prizes worth eighty thousand.

Aurum was successful and the club’s message was also conveyed. Aurum is the annual fund raiser of the club; thus the proceeds towards this event go towards various community service projects. It was also the participant’s way of contributing to the society as they have fun. The member efforts towards making this event successful were highly credible.

We congratulate the Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East on the success of its event and
wish it good luck for all further endeavours.

Joy of Giving Week

The Joy of Giving Week is a "festival of giving" that aims to bring together Indians all across the country and abroad through different acts of giving- money, time, skills or resources. The secret of happiness lies in the joy of giving and sharing. The Week was launched in 2009 .This year the joy of giving week was from September 26, 2010 to October 2, 2010.
Since, our club believes in making a difference differently, this joy of giving week, we came up with a set of events that would help spread happy cheer.

We began the joy of giving week on a completely fun note; our first event on the 26th was ‘Craft-toon’, an art and craft workshop for the kids at Aman Vedika. Our members were very enthusiastic and excited. The kids very doubly excited and were eagerly waiting for us. We taught the kids to make various fun art and craft items like boat, four cups, candles and many more things will colour papers. The younger kids had a gala time colouring cartoons and other pictures. The day ended with the kids and members dancing to various songs. It was one event were we all got to re-live our childhood, involve ourselves with colours, music, run around as a train and much more. We also got to see how talented the club members where when it comes to making art and craft, dancing and singing ;)

Our second event, ‘Symphony’ –a musical evening on, 27th at Sai junior College, for the visually challenged was an evening filled with melodious music where we had members from our club playing and singing various famous Hindi and Telugu songs for the kids there. The highlight of the day was the talented kids who completely mesmerized us with their singing talent. The event was covered by Maa Music.

On 1st, we screened ‘Maya Bazaar’, a Telugu movie at Agape. Agape is a home for the children affected with HIV positive .The word “agape” means God’s love. Their mission is to love and care for the poorest of poor suffering as a result of the global AIDS crisis. It has been one of our main centres for our community service projects. The kids and rotaractors thoroughly enjoyed the movie, we had a wonderful evening.

On October 1st and 2nd we took part in the ‘Karmayog-seva mela’. More than 20 organisations and volunteers had showcased their creative talents and worked through competition cum exhibition. We had a combined stall with the Rotaract Club of Hyderabad North and our aim was to raise funds for polio eradication as a part of rotary’s international project “We shall overcome”. We had members at the stall from 11 am to 8 pm where they enlightened people about polio and ways to eradicate it. We managed to raise a good amount.

This was the first event for the new recruits and the new board and it was a HUGE success. Looking forward for BIGGER and BETTER events. Cheers!

Pooja Vaikari
Director for international service, 2010-2011

Rotaract- That says it all

Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women between the ages of 18 and 30. Rotaract clubs are either community or university based, and they are sponsored by a local Rotary club. This makes them true "partners in service" and key members of the family of Rotary.
As one of Rotary‟s most significant and fastest-growing service programs, with more than 7,000 clubs across 163 countries and geographical areas, Rotaract has become a worldwide phenomenon.

The Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East was chartered on the 29th of September 2007 an is one of the city‟s most active clubs, having bagged awards for its efforts. Our members are mostly students between the ages of 18 and 24, pursuing the bachelor‟s courses in various fields ranging from Commerce to Engineering, and some of whom are working. Rotaract club of Hyderabad East has since its inception done several community service projects, making a genuine effort to touch lives and make a difference differently! All Rotaract efforts begin at the local, grassroots level, with members addressing their communities’ physical and social needs while promoting international understanding and peace through a framework of friendship and service.

Rotaract represents ‘Rotary in action’ and true to this, we have organised a variety of innovative community service projects, for their benefit and also make sure that they enjoy themselves.

Community service projects:
•Donation of a 1500 watt music system to AGAPE.
•Organization of a painting workshop for the children at AGAPE.
•Donation of three air coolers at AGAPE right before the summer months..
•Organization of a Christmas party for the children at AGAPE and Aman Vedika.
•Funding the education of under privileged children
•Conducting food donation drives at locations, on many occasions.
•Donating teaching aids at Sri Guru Sankalpam, for mentally Challenged children.
•Donating tricycles for the physically challenged.
•Participating actively in Pulse Polio programmes, immunizing over 1000 children every year.
•Providing stationary at government schools for children before their exams.
•Celebrating festivals with Children at various homes across the city.
•Donating clothes at old age homes and orphanages •Providing medicines at homes for the aged. •Starting a library at AGAPE
•Project Silver Lining - Volunteering as scribes for the intermediate exams of blind students
•Donation of food and grains for Kashmiri Refugees
 •Donation of money for Kidney Transplant operations of patients who couldn't afford the cost.

•We are also taking part in a nationwide movement called ‘Joy of Giving Week’ to encourage social service by organising a variety of projects throughout the week. AGAPE: The word “agape” means God’s love. Their mission is to love and care for the poorest of poor suffering as a result of the global AIDS crisis. It has been one of our main centers for our community service projects.

We meet on a regular basis to plan and organize the community service projects and also to organize various fund raising projects to procure funds for the charitable activities.

Fundraisers: All profits from the fund raisers go towards these activities. We plan to conduct fundraisers to raise funds for community service and to spread the word about our organization, so that people will know that they can serve society through us. We also use this as a tool to promote social causes which may benefit from the exposure.
 One of our first fund-raiser was a Karaoke night at Levitate. We also conducted a Salsa workshop

 Then, we conducted AURUM- a treasure hunt for charity. This event had a HUGE turn-out so we made it an annual event. We conducted it twice and it keeps getting bigger and better. This year we plan to have it on the 1st or 2nd Sunday of October The Treasure Hunt begins at a pre-decided point (which will be notified to all the participants on registration and which will also be advertised on posters advertising the event to allow spot-registrations). The participants will be given the set of clues at the starting point which will cover a number of places in the city. The participants will also have to collect a list of treasures before reaching the end point. The first team to do this with maximum points will be declared the winner of this Treasure hunt. Certain Check points may have a short event or competition where the participants must win or finish the event.

These are difficult days in our world's history. 1.75 billion People are desperately poor, natural disasters are gouging entire nations, and economic uncertainty still reigns across the globe. But you and I have been given an opportunity to make a big difference. What if we did? What if we rocked the world with hope? Infiltrated all corners with God's love and life? Let's live our lives in such a way that the world will be glad we did.

 Pragnya Challapally
 Joint Secretary, 2010-2011

A letter from the President to her members

The New President, Kedari Reddy has a message to give her members: Yet another Rotaract year passed by and what a year it has been. Unbelievable hard work, the running around and all the challenges and hardships faced on one side, and the smile you see on the face of the needy on the other... and yes, that smile outweighs the toil. It outweighs the incredible amount of fun we have trying to make THEM smile. But the truth being, it is THEY who make US smile. It is strange how they holding on to your hand the whole day fills YOU with joy. It is strange how after a day long work, when you start to feel the exhaustion and just want to go home and crash, just a "When will you come back to meet us?" or a "Thankyou for writing my exam for me" etc is enough to lighten up your day and remove all the weariness. Rotaract is not just an organisation. It is a family.. of all the needy out there and ofcourse, the Rotaractors. A really tiny family, aren't we? :) We laugh, we make others laugh, we make fun of each other, we help each other, we annoy each other but in the end, we know we love each other. We are smart and dumb. We are hard working and lazy. We are understanding and ignorant. We are sensible and crazy. We.. are rotaractors. If not for the contribution of each and every member, Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East would not have been what it is today. This year, we welcome more such passionate individuals. We are elated to have selected such wonderful people like you. A warm bear hug to all of you. So Rotaractors !! Let's give in our best for another marvelous year ahead. Hopefully, we'll make Rotaract boast of many more impactful and fun events.

The new Board has its say

The New Board has its say. Incoming President Kedari Reddy makes her speech at the installation cermony: Good evening respected Rotarians, dear Parents, and my fellow rotaractors. In the words of one of our founders, Varenya, Rotaract is what you make of it. For some of us, it is a platform to develop professional and leadership skills. For the rest, it is a means of showing goodwill towards people. For me, Rotaract is about making a difference. It's about making a difference at an individual level and to the society, on an emotional as well as materialistic level. Since it's inception, Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East has only scaled heights. Be it the fundraisers or service projects, they only kept getting bigger and better. Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East today, is a family. And we all absolutely love it. A big thank you to our parent Rotary Club for being there for us at every point and guiding us. The club wouldn't have been what it is today, without their priceless support. Acknowledging the brilliant job done by the club last year, all we can do now is make a promise. A promise to keep up with the momentum of the past two and half years and try our best to surpass it. Thank you. The Vote of Thanks by Biswadeb Das,Secretary for the Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East 2010-2011: On behalf of the Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those without who this event would not have been possible. I would like to thank Rotarian Madhu Babu (President of Rotary Club dist 3150) for gracing this occasion. I would like to thank all the Rotarians who have come here today. Thanks to the Rotary club for always being there for us and supporting our every endeavor. Thank you to the past board, we promise to go on with the legacy of our club and do even better than we have. Thank You to Vijaya Kanth (DRR) for being with us on this occasion. Thank You to Tansen (IP DRR, DRT and Co-chairman Addets) for your support always and being there today as well. Thank You to all the parents for taking out time from your busy schedules and being here today. Also, we have among us members of other Rotaract clubs Thank you for taking out the time and being here today. Thank you to Vishnu who was very generous by providing us the venue for todays program A big thank you to all the members of the club who made this event possible. A special thank you to New member Padmini for the welcome song, to Pooja and Pragnya for handling the hosting of the cermony so beautifully, to Mrinmayee and the other volunteers for co-ordinating the happenings at the venue, and to all the other members who have contributed in terms of time and manpower. Thank you. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank those who are not present with us but deserve to be mentioned nevertheless. Rotarian Jawahar Vadlamani, those members who are not with us right now, but have guided us through the projects and the installation through the physical distance. Lastly, we would like to thank all those who have believed in us all through.

Installation Cermony: 2010-2011

The Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East had its installation on the 28th of August, where the third board took over and promised to take the club forward in the year of 2010-2011. The ceremony was held at The Aditya Park Inn at Ameerpet. The meeting saw speeches from the Past President Ravi Chandra, who completely moved away from his planned speech as he let his heart talk, the last year report by Akbar Ali who let us catch glimpses of moments and experiences as lived by the Rotarians last year, the incoming President promised to try and live upto the expectations,and the Rotarian President, Mr Madhu Babu promised us full support for the coming year and also gave us suggestions to improve ourselves in the coming year. Mr Vijaya Kanth (DRR)and Tansen (IP DRR, DRT and Co-chairman Addets) also motivated us through their confidence in us, and their encouraging and kind words. The New Board members were presented with their badges by Rotr Madhu Babu.

The new board is as follows: PRESIDENT : Kedari Reddy, VICE-PRESIDENT : Savit Vadlamani, SECRETARY : Biswadeb Das, JOINT-SECRETARY : Pragnya Challapally, TREASURER : Navya Akkinepally,  DIRECTOR OF FINANCE : Nikitha Reddy, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY SERVICE : Sruti Raju, DIRECTOR OF VOCATIONAL SERVICE : Prateek Reddy, DIRECTOR OF LIAISON : Tanvi Desai, DIRECTOR OF CLUB SERVICE : Mrinmayee Dhoble, . DIRECTOR FOR INTERNATIONAL SERVICE: Pooja Vaikari, DIRECTOR OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES : Abhishek Ganapa.

Along with the New board, the new recruits were formally inculcated into the club, as new members and could now call themselves Rotaractors.
The list of new members is as follows: Padmini Karamchedu, Sampoorna Gonella, Nitish Jakkani,         Prakash Dangwal, Neeharika Yadav Dayyala, Arpit Misri, Akhila Jyothy, Sheena Rao, Shruti Reddy,      Soumya Reddy, Arjun Prasad, Mohammed Abdul Majid, Prathyusha Krishna and Bhargav Ram.

Here is to hoping to another great year ahead. We wish the club the best of luck in their endeavors. After all, they have to make a difference, differently.

SInce its inception its been more than just HISTORY ..

One of the oldest Rotaractors Krutika Reddy writes a blog entry especially for the Rotaract. Varenya calls me up and says, " Krutika, you know what we all can start a club and have fun ". I had absolutely no clue whatsoever - what we'll do as a part of Rotaract;, how many Rotaract clubs existed , NOTHING , zilch - absolutely nothing.. We were all charged by the idea of starting something new all by ourselves. ' FUN' and something 'NEW '- those were the magic words and that was all that mattered to us. Fifteen of us met at Varenya's house and her father, our mentor, Past Rotary Governor, Jawahar Uncle started off by saying " Please ask yourselves what is in it for me? " Back then, it was a million dollar question. ( I said back then because each and everyone who has been a part of Rotaract can tell you what the club has in store for you NOW confidently ).None of us had an answer to it except for our " two magic words". We began officially on 29th September 2007 ( but i must mention that we had already finished our first fund raiser by then) . Here the list of the founder board members: President : Varenya Vadlamani Vice-President: Ravi Chandra Secretary: Poojita Tulasi (unfortunately served only for three months ) following which it was me. Joint- Secretary : Dheeraj Reddy Treasurer : Isha Kajrewal Director of finance: Amrita Kanjani Director for community service: Me for a while after which all of us handled it :) Director for club service: Amrutha Ganapa Fifteen of us had no set road laid for us and it was a complete inchoate beginning. There were times we pulled 7 extra chairs and sat around one table in eat street; There were times we met every sunday at Barista shamelessly without ordering a single drink and sat for hours together until that guy almost kicked us out ! There were times when we shifted the meetings from Barista to vengalarao park and from there to Mc Donalds.But what mattered the most to us was ' Hey we've got to meet and we don't care where'. The general trend was: a lot of frantic calls made in the last moment; confusion at its PEAK :D, but definitely a lesson learnt at the end of the day. There were a lot more pressing situations, shipwreck of our efforts. But, we've learnt to deal with each of them collectively, struggled and succeeded. That was the bonding we shared .. Errr.. OOPs we STILL share and continue to do so. Rotaract club of Hyderabad East in 2007-08 was what fifteen friends strongly supported and believed in; They believed that they can make it big though they didn't know how. Now, they believe that helping others doesn't mean sacrificing their precious 2 hours time of a blockbuster movie or a saturday night party at a happening place or for that matter a couple of heavenly hours of sleep. The "bhaari" term social service to the 15 of us meant something different and now each of us has a refined interpretation for it. That was what the club did to us. I can vouch for every founder member that each one of us has changed and, our club since its inception has been more than history to us. It's a nostalgic moment :) I take immense pride (I have goosebumps on my hands now) in saying that all of us, each and every rotarator has MADE Rotaract club of Hyderabad East BIG ! Rotaract is a part of our lives and its responsibility is never a burden for us. I can promise on behalf of all the rotaractors that some years down the line when we reminisce about the days we've spent together, we'll certainly say " DAMn ! i miss those days". I know for a fact that when I call any rotaractor in the future and say " hey, could you please help me " , I can be rest assured that help will come my way. To all the new and old members of our "family" , on behalf of all the founder members , I acknowledge your commitment and welcome you to get your share of our "Rotaract" experience. Rotaract has been more than history to us and I promise that so will it be for each one of you. ALL the best and welcome aboard " to make a difference differently "

Rotaractors have fun too

For all of you who think we only do work, work and more work...just to let you know we have fun too.The Rotaract is about friendship, about making others laugh, its about having an extended family, about trying new things, about laughing at yourself, about dancing as if no one is watching. About loving life, and giving back to the society, using your rights and knowing you can make a difference. Its about pride in yourself, about the warm feeling when you know the smile is because of you, about the 2 AM conversations and 4PM lunches....It is about making a difference differently :-)

Recruitment 2010

It was finally the day of the recruitment!! Venue: Jalvihar. The day started with bursting activity, the registration team making the final preparations, GD (group discussion) and TS ( Team Simulation) teams arranging the venues, the refreshments team tidying up the place and our incoming president elect- Kedari Reddy making sure everyone does what they are supposed to. The Participants started coming from 10AM onwards and after their registrations the recruitment took off with the GDs. The First round of Group discussions went on for half an hour and by then the other we has to organize other GD panels which were also soon occupied. The GDs were intensive as the participants became more engrossed, by which time even our GD team was a little hesitant to say “Time’s Up”. The team simulation rounds started next,working parallel to the GDs, with participants churning their minds to bring out the best fundraiser ideas possible. The ideas varied, from vintage car rallies to rock shows. It seemed like the TS team had the best fun, but every team claims that title. The Personal Interviews were conducted by two panels. The interview time varying from half an hour to an hour, the participants seemed more excited than we were. The recruitment was wound off by 3 pm, while the rotaracters stayed back to discuss the potential rotaractors. It was a fun discussion as usual, as we sat around eating sandwiches and pulling each others leg. Thank you for the great response. -Aditya J

Silver Lining

Close your eyes and try to walk around in a dark room, difficult isn’t it?? Now imagine living your life like that, well, that’s how it is to be blind… Like everyone else, people who are blind want to live normal active lives and are often more capable than sighted people realize. Despite their difficulties they are cheerful and happy all the time. Devnar is a residential school for the blind. The school has classes from LKG to inter 2nd year. Upto Std 5, students are trained in Braille. Once they are proficient in the usage of Braille, they start their lessons. The school encourages students and helps in their overall development. The children can sing, dance, play instruments, games like cricket and have other talents as well. They work hard…very hard! They learn and write their exams in Braille. But, for their public exams i.e. for when they are in the 10th and inter, they need scribes to write it for them and even during the pre-finals for practice. So, we thought of writing the pre-finals for these children. We spread the news and the response we got was amazing. Students, business people and even house-wives volunteered to write the exam. We even had to turn down a few of them due to excess of volunteers. The exams were for 6 days and the scribes were very excited to write the exams for the students. It was the first time for most of us to write these exams and we were elated. Basically, we just had to read out the questions and write the answers as dictated by the students. The students were strong-willed and tried their best to answer every question in the paper. They were always polite and enthusiastic while giving their answers. You've probably heard that blindness is the most feared disability. You've probably heard that blindness is a tragedy. You've probably heard that blind people are limited in many ways, that the more vision a child has, the better chance of success he or she has, that 80% of what a child learns is visual. Well, forget all that! Blindness does not have to be a tragic situation. It does not inhibit development of concepts, getting an education, being independent, being happy! It was amazing to see the students interact so well with each other, the partially blind kids help the fully blind ones and they were happy to help. One could notice the genuineness in them when they greet you with a big smile, their sincerity when they come to their exam halls on time (the scribes were late on a few occasions), and their innocence when they ask you if you are going to come again the next day to write their exam. The scribes told us how much they enjoyed writing the exam and how, for the first time they weren’t nervous in an exam hall! Many of them stayed back after the exam to interact with the students. We were told that most of the children were neglected and people look down upon them in the society, so even if we give them a little attention their day is made. We observed that since they lack one of their sense organs they make sure that the others work really well. They learn their lessons through cassettes and have their goals set high. Some of them want to become IAS officers while others lawyers, many of their passed out students are working in Multinational companies, one of the students is studying in MIT, Boston. These are truly remarkable achievements. We could feel an urge in them to make their place felt in this competitive world. The volunteers were given certificates by us as we wanted them to know that they were doing a very good job and to encourage them to continue to serve the community and make a difference wherever they go.. Pragnya Challapalli

Don't know who had more fun that day!!!

photo collage

Some of the members of the Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East. Collage made by: Kedari Reddy

New promise

We apologize for the long gap between the posts. The Rotaract Club of Hyderabad East is back with it's blog. In the time lapse between the posts, we have recruited new members, carried off yet another successful year with Aurum- our annual car treasure hunt, featured in the press, received aamazing responses for our clothes and book donation drive, and for our project with a blind school. We also worked really hard and pulled off Oorja- the 41st District Conference, where various Rotaract clubs spoke about their projects, their future ideas, their relations with one another and with their parent Rotarty club. And time flew by. We are now looking towards our third recruitment, on August 8th, 2010. The new board is in place, being guided by the old ones who will step down in the second week of August. While we will continue to keep our old promises, we make one more- to regularly update this blog.:-). Watch this space for more.