Houston Desi Whatsapp Group Thanks Hurricane Harvey Volunteers
HOUSTON: The Houston Desi Friends group, a unique Whatsapp group with over 5,000 members, celebrated its third anniversary at India House on Sunday, September 24. This group supports sharing information of events, business deals, job opportunities, immigration related information, travel companions etc., using Whatsapp as a communications tool .
This group organized a volunteer appreciation event to honor various organizations, restaurants, and individual volunteers who supported the Houston community during Harvey disaster.
As part of the appreciation event, Admins of the group (Kishore Ramaraju, Umang Mehta, Ravi Gunishetti, Indira Nimmagadda, Praveen Ponugoti, Srikanth Jakka, Bhavesh Ranka, Jiju Kulangara, Ratnakar Moderkuti, Subhasree Gokul, Devi Sirigiri, Rajesh Desai, Sri Raja Sekhar Yedupati and Sreedhar Aaloori) honored various nonprofit organizations and restaurant owners.
Representatives from various nonprofit organizations such as Sewa USA, VT Seva, Ashtalakshmi temple, JET, Shiv Shakti Mandir, Shirdi Sai Jalaram Mandir, American Telangana Association, Andhra Pradesh Non Resident Telugu Association, American Progressive Telugu Association, Telugu Cultural Organization, Telangana Association of Greater Houston, Ashirwad, IT Serve, Telugu Association of North America, Sikh Community, Sneha Hastam, NATS, India House, and Indo-American News participated and received honors.
Gitesh Desai from Sewa and Bangar Reddy from VT Seva appreciated Desi Friends team for organizing the volunteer appreciation event. Gitesh Desai, Bangar Reddy, and Col. Vipin Kumar presented honors to various organizations. Velma, who drove 200 miles in dangerous conditions to deliver food to Harvey victims, was the highlight of the event.
Houston Desi Friends also honored restaurant owners who served thousands of free meals to the community such as Hyderabad House, Bawarchi, Biryani & Grill, Biryani Factory, Biryani Pot, Bombay Sweets, Café India, Bollywood Chowpaty Chat, Mayuri, Nirmanz, Tandoori Night, The Curry House, Universal Bakery, Vishala Resturant, etc.
Desi Friends also recognized around 75 individual volunteers. Abby kept all the attendees engaged with her humorous anchoring. Akhila and Suman Mangu entertained the audience with their songs.
Sponsors of the appreciation event included Freedom Automative & Collision, CWC Internationals, Pepon Digital, Deep Foods, The Curry House, Biryani Pot, Biryani Factory and Universal Bakery.