Dear Friends,
Thank you for coming to this month's seniors program despite the cold
weather. We had a cozy gathering of 25 seniors. Raman-ji was on time, as
always, and the program started after waiting for a few minutes for the
seniors who came by bus, to join us. Though I was not in the yoga session,
towards the end of the session, when Preeti and I walked in to serve the soup,
the peace that emanated from the hall as the seniors chanted Om was so
palpable that I just stood absorbing that moment. If Seniors would like to
share what happened during the yoga session, it would benefit the rest of
us. Please send a mail to seniorsgroup@htccwa.org to share your experiences
of today's yoga session.
We had three amazing volunteers come by to make a delicious meal. Thank
you to Jyoti, Preeti and our new volunteer Sonali Nikam, who is a delightful
addition to the volunteer team. Sonali is a M.S.in Computer Science, has a
five year old, worked for Microsoft and now has decided to take time off for
a while to be with her son and volunteer for the seniors program.
Our lunch was fresh, wholesome and delicious. The highlight of the dishes
were the soup and the fresh sabji. Thank you again to our cooking
volunteers. Thank you to Ms. Pallavi (Sunil) for helping with serving the
soup.
It was a delight to see Pran-ji at the temple. He came by to wish all the
seniors a good holiday season. Nitya-ji and Alok-ji and Yamini added a few
words and reiterated HTCC's commitment to the seniors program along with a
goal to resolving the Transportation issue.( While HTCC and IAWW volunteers
are doing their best to address the transportation, we need your family's
help as well. Hope you would advocate for the seniors program and get them
involved in supporting the seniors program. ) Our yoga teacher, Raman-ji
also reiterated the need to spread the word around and get more seniors to
join the seniors community.
We had planned a music session after lunch, however, we didn't see
Bharat-ji and my apologies that we did not come up with an alternative plan.
Mrs. Joshi gave us a song and we hoped more seniors would come in to join.
Thank you Mrs. Joshi, next time, we will plan better. For next month, Mrs.
Agashe and Mrs. Joshi will lead us through a music session, others are
welcome to come with your favorite songs and be a part of this music
session.
Thank you to Tikaram-ji for setting up the table and making delicious chai
for the early volunteers who came at 9:00am to start preparing the lunch, to
Devraj-Ji for getting the groceries and helping with miscellany in the
morning. Thank you to Shanti mami(Ponniamma) for setting up the center
pieces - we had candy canes on a tall decorative glass cup. ( If you have
creative and inexpensive ideas to set up our centerpieces, please share it
with me. :-)). Thank you to our dedicated volunteer drivers - Santosh,
Nitya-ji and Devraj-ji. Your presence is greatly appreciated.
We had a number of seniors who pitched in to help with the clean up. Our
new Senior volunteers Mrs. Chandra and Mr.T.N. Ramachandran who had come
for the first time were wonderful, they started cleaning the table, folding
the table cloths etc. Thank you to both of you. Pran-ji,Alok-ji, Ponnima,
Mr. Thakkar, Mr. Movva, Mr. Ayyappan all helped in folding the tables and
putting them back in its place. If I missed acknowledging anyone, please
accept my sincere apologies. Each one of your presence is greatly
appreciated.
Mr.Movva is leaving for India this week. We wish you a safe trip and look
forward to seeing you in March. Thank you for being a champion of the
seniors program.
Have a safe holiday season and a happy new year to you all!
Aff'ly
Yamini