GOPIO CT elected new Executive Committee Members for the term 2019; President – Anita Bhat, Executive Vice President – Santosh Gannu, Vice President – Bhavna Juneja, Secretary – Prasad Chintalapudi, Joint Secretary – Gayatri Mahesh, Immediate Past President – Shelly Nichani, Trustees: Srinivas Akarapu and Shailesh Naik. The Annual General Body Meeting was held on Friday, December 14th at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Stamford.
All were elected unanimously. The nominations and elections were conducted by a committee headed by Dr. Thomas Abraham along with Varghese Ninan and Meera Banta. Dr. Thomas Abraham, Neelam Narang, Sanjay Santhanam and Varghese Ninan will continue as Trustees.
At the General Body meeting, President Anita Bhat gave report of the activities in 2018. Bhat said that the chapter’s signature event was its Annual Awards Banquet at which those Indian Americans from Connecticut who have achieved in various fields were recognized. GOPIO-CT gave scholarship to three graduating high school students and one student joining Norwalk community College. GOPIO-CT sponsored five soup kitchens at the New Covenant House in Stamford where GOPIO-CT volunteers also cooked and served the food. GOPIO-CT also participated in the cancer walk to raise funds for Stamford Hospital’s Bennet Cancer Center. A series of Meet and Greet sessions with First Selectmen of the following towns were held in 2018, in Westport, New Canaan, Trumbull, Greenwich and Darien at which members of Indian American community could interact with the First Selectmen.
Following the election, GOPIO-CT had its Annual Holiday Party which also served as fundraiser for Teach For America, whose Executive Director from New Haven Nate Snow spoke at the event on the organization’s mission to “enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation’s most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence.” Snow called upon Indian-American community to participate in Teach For America programs.
Two of Connecticut’s newly elected assemblymen Raghib Allie-Brennan and Matt Blumenthal were honored guests who committed to closely work with community groups such GOPIO-CT for the welfare Connecticut’s residents as well as the society at large.
