CRY Houston Draws from Growing Base at Larger Venue

Organizers of CRY Houston and Gala Committee members take a bow at the function held on March 3 at the Sugar Land Marriott.

SUGAR LAND: CRY, Child Rights & You America [CRY America], a 501c3 non-profit that works towards ensuring underprivileged children their basic rights, hosted their Annual Houston Gala Dinner on March 3rd at the Marriott Town Square in Sugar Land to bring people together for the cause of children’s rights.

Speakers included emcee Meena Datt, Houston Consul General Anupam Ray, Fort Bend County Judge KP George and Special Guest Indian film actress Tanishaa Mukerji to amplify the voices of underprivileged children.

Tanishaa is known for her works in Indian movies, Bollywood and Telugu and Tamil films. She is the daughter of filmmaker Shomu Mukherjee and actress Tanuja Samarth and the younger sister of Bollywood actress Kajol.

The Gala was attended by 240 guests and raised over $125,000 which will be directed towards grass roots projects working on critical children’s issues.
Apart from raising awareness for the cause, guests enjoyed the evening with dinner, cocktails, silent and live auctions, entertainment, music and dancing. Performances by Arzan Gonda, Executive Director of Rhythm India and her students during the program and the Bellaire Jazz Band during the social hour. added spark and were much appreciated by all the guests. They got up to dance at the tail end of the gala to the msuic of DJ Sage.

Auction items donated by famous Indian artistes included a beautiful painting by Prakash Deshmukh; fashion ensemble Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla; a boxing glove autographed by World Champions; a Star Wars Movie Poster signed by 12 Cast Members; a Marvel Universe Picture autographed by the late Stan Lee; cricket bats signed by star players Saurav Ganguly and Sehwag were popular and sold out quickly by auctioneers Dr. Subodh Bhuchar and Abiya Malhotra.

The Gala Committee composed of Dharam and Priya Bali, Juuhi and Prakash Ahuja, Dina and Sameer Patel, Neeraj and Gauri Seth, Geetha and Bala Balachandran, Dr. Tina and Dr. Harish Pariani, Chetan and Radha Patel, Ritu and Kunal Nadkarni and Devina and Dilip Bhojwani played a key role in enabling a sold out and successful event.

Event sponsors included Object Win, Vantive Inc., Wise Men, Wells Fargo Advisors, Shipcom Wireless, Ailings, ANB Systems, Murali Santhana Photography, Sage Productions, Rhythm India and Verandah. A special shout out to the media for their ongoing support – TV Asia, Star TV, Radio Dabang, Indo American News, Voice of Asia, Meena Datt Radio and India Herald.
Millions of children are denied their rights on a daily basis. CRY America works with grass-root projects, communities and local government bodies to ensure children have quality education, healthcare, and protection from child labor, child marriage and issues which hinder their development.

Shefali Sunderlal says, “CRY America believes that “YOU” can empower children’s dreams and be ambassadors of change for children’s rights. Your support allows us to ensure that thousands of children are able to go to sleep educated, healthy and protected. With the support from over 25,000 donors & 2,000 volunteers, CRY America has transformed the lives of over 716,386 children across 3,755 villages and slums.”

She appealed for people to join CRY America as donors, volunteers and supporters and visit http://www.america.cry.org for more information.