5 Year Old, Raises $1,464 for Pratham Houston!

Photo: Run Houston official site

SUGAR LAND: Established in 1995 to provide education to children in Mumbai slums, Pratham (which means “first” in Sanskrit) is one of the largest and most successful non-governmental education organizations in India. Since its inception, Pratham has transformed the lives of more than 58 million underserved children and youth across 21 of India’s 29 states. In addition, Pratham has equipped 100,000 youth with relevant job skills and entrepreneurship opportunities.

On Saturday, December 1, Pratham-Houston participated in Run Houston Sugar Land through Reason 2 Race with Pratham as the supporting cause at the Skeeter’s Stadium in Sugar Land. Each event hosted by, Run Houston race brings over a thousand participants to engage during the event—from volunteers, to sponsors, to organizations raising funds for their charities, and of course those who run for the causes they are raising awareness for their charity of choice.

Saloni Pargaonkar

This year, Pratham Houston participated in the Sugar Land Race and was well represented with over 15 team members. The participants ranged in all ages and backgrounds, who enrolled in both available options, physically running or register in Reason2Race virtual option, which allows anyone anywhere to take part in this event. One of our youngest enthusiasts was Saloni Pargaonkar (age 5), who took on the challenge to complete the 5k, while bringing attention to a cause very close to her heart. Her passion for reading was matched with her ambitious goal of raising $500. We are very proud to announce that she not only reached her goal, but also exceeded it by raising a total of $1464, which led her to be the second largest fundraiser through Reason 2 Run-Sugar Land Race!

We are excited to have her along with many other supporting members of Pratham continue the fundraising efforts with passion and determination! We are also very thankful to Gabrielle and Bill Baumeyer for creating Reason 2 Race and working with Pratham USA to build a team that is giving us the platform to raise funds and awareness through the events. The five part Houston race series begins again in 2019 with the first race on January 1, 2019 at the Sam Houston Race Park. The series kick off will begin another 5 races for the year that will each have a Pratham team presence and fundraising page.

To find more information about donating to the cause or upcoming participating events and deadlines, please visit https://www.reason2race.com/nonprofits and select Pratham USA. To support Pratham, please contact Mani Surkari at mani@prathamusa.org or visit www.prathamusa.org.

Our upcoming events include the Holiday Luncheon on December 7, at Junior League of Houston and 20th anniversary celebrations of Pratham USA at our annual gala on Saturday, April 20, at Hilton Americas where we will be honoring founder of Pratham USA, Mr. Vijay Goradia.