Leicester
Namaste and Jai Shree Krishna
This was my first year as president of SPA Leicester( SPAL), and I knew that with this post comes great responsibility to ensure that I continue and build on the legacy of my predecessors. I am pleased to report that SPAL is fulfilling our duties with everyone’ s support. This report highlights some our achievements this year.
Following the 2015 AGM, SPA( UK) Senior Sneh Milan 2015 was the first event that was hosted by SPAL. The logistics of the event was managed by us and what a successful event it was! We had approximately 950 guests and 70 volunteers of all ages. The biggest challenge was to serve lunch to all within 2 hours! It was achieved within one and half hours. What an achievement! The volunteers were rewarded with praise.
The SPAL Mahila team( Kalaben, Ranjanben, Bhagwatiben and Kamuben) have been actively organising various events throughout the year and these included: a. A day trip to the Oshwal Centre temple and the Hare Krishna Mandir in Watford. Over 100 members had a wonderful time. b. A multi-community Bhajan session including other Hindu communities in Leicester. It was so popular that we are scheduling another event this year. c. The annual Diwali show on 6th November 2015 was a‘ sell-out’. The programme included dances and acts performed by our very young to senior members. The hosts were Nishaben and Anandbhai, who managed the show with excellent precision and captured the audience’ s attention with their style, presentation and jokes. The show certainly engaged the audience and everyone appreciated the efforts of the participants.
The SPAL event team led by Nileshbhai went out of their way to bring a very entertaining evening for all to enjoy. Jamie Docherty performed magic from the stage and at every guest table. Platinum Sounds provided the music and the temperature in the room really turned up when Navin Kundra, our special guest, made a spectacular entrance. Navin joined in with the crowd to give a very entertaining performance with his blend of new and old Bollywood numbers.
One special addition to our calendar of activities was the Children’ s Workshops for every major Hindu religious festival( Navratri, Diwali, Makar Sankrant, Holi, Ram Navmi). This idea was born by one of our members- Nishaben, who explained that whilst she was growing up, she participated in many of these festivals but no one was able to explain in detail why we celebrate these events. As a parent herself, she thought it would be good to introduce our children through these workshops to learn about our religion, values and beliefs. Each workshop is designed around a particular theme that is demonstrated though, play, art, music, dance, drama and storytelling, which is planned with the help and guidance of a primary school teacher and is run by Nishaben and her team of volunteers. Around 75 children between the ages of 5 to 15 attend and many parents also accompany their children to the workshop and join in to help with the activities. It is a very successful fun filled workshop.
SPAL weekly activities includes men and ladies keep fit classes, Yoga, table tennis, the SPAL Cricket Team, Darts, Bhajan Kirtan, and Social Club. These activities have seen an increasing number of members taking part. The biggest success has been the ladies keep fit class, where we have an average attendance of 40 ladies.
The Darts team organised a friendly darts tournament on 23rd February 2016. 180 people attended the event, including 150 participants. We also had participants from Bolton, Rugby, Loughborough and Coventry SPA branches.
72 vol. 41 | Prajapati Sandesh 2016