A Message from the President

Dear Members,

Happy Diwali and a very prosperous 2067 to you all. It has been an honor and privilege to serve our community to the best of my abilities for the final year as President.

I wish to thank the entire committee for their hard work and trust in me.  My sincere and heartfelt thanks to all sponsors, some who remain anonymous, for their generosity in supporting our Gujarati Samaj. A very special appreciation for our Delaware Liquor Wholesalers who even in a lackluster economy, have faithfully supported us financially for over a decade. We would not enjoy such a glorious celebration without everyone’s support.

In my three year tenure , I have eliminated the financially draining Natak Program and replaced it with bus trips, and started the Youth Group. My emphasis has been to deliver to our seniors and it was gratifying to the committee to receive written accolades from our senior members Mr. Pravinbhai Modi and Mr. Indubhai C Patel.

Our annual GSD directory has been fully digitized thanks to Nikhilbhai who is also in the process of  doing the same for our community records. My thanks to all committee members who are helping him achieve this goal.

We have received approval to inaugurate our “ Building Trust Fund “ from Life Members and will begin work on this important goal soonest. This is but the first step to having our own community centre.  Suggestions are welcome from members.

Once again we had a large turnout at our annual picnic. The food by Nandavan Caterers was great and the water-ice a delight on a hot summer day. Kids had a field day with pizza and popcorn! Thank you Apna Bazzar for all your generous help over the years with this event.

The Vraj bus trip was a hit with the seniors. They insisted we have more bus trips which resulted in our highly successful, first overnight trip to Palace Of Gold in West Virginia. Thanks to Vinodbhai, Bintaben, and Nutan for their service and delicious “SevUsad“. I hope this trend continues for the benefit of all members.

We celebrated five Navaratri garbas this year. Sponsorship is open to all and with the ever growing costs to hold this festival, we welcome all donations towards Maataji’s garbas. The wrist band system worked very well this year in all programs, and helped to control uninvited guests at Navaratri.

Our “Youth Wing“ celebrated their first anniversary and they are still enthusiastic, disciplined, lovable and at times strict with us during picnic and Navratri. It is my sincere hope they will continue to grow in numbers in our tradition of “Samaj“ and we will in turn support them when the time comes.

My heartfelt thanks again to Kumarbhai for his help and guidance, all members especially seniors, and the entire committee for your support to me and dedication to Gujarati Samaj of Delaware.

With your help and our committees’ dedication we will have a very successful future.

On behalf of our GUJARATI SAMAJ OF DELAWARE,
JAI  SHREE  KRISHNA
Bhavesh Patel