IACRF Seniors Celebrate US Independence Day
Contributed By - Dr. Prakash V Kotecha and Bhagubhai Patel
Independence Day Celebration:
On July 05, we celebrated US Independence Day in true spirit. US and Indian Flags were displayed in the hall and every one was dressed up in Red White and Blue. The program included National anthem for US and India, quiz related to history of US Independence Day, some interesting facts related to US Independence Day and poem recital. Members saluted the flags and sang along the National Anthem for US first followed by Indian National Anthem. “Long live America” and “Vande Mataram” were voiced with spirited enthusiasm by the members. Madhu Joshi then nicely conducted a quiz related to US Independence Day. Members enjoyed the quiz and two teams of Men and Women performed equally well.
?Dr. ?Prakash Kotecha then briefed about the Continental Congress declaring that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as a new nation, the United States of America, and were no longer part of the British Empire. This was proposed by Richard Henry and then the Independence Day declaration committee of five members was formed under the chairmanship of Thomas Jefferson. Other members being John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Interesting fact was that out of these five members Jon Adams and Thomas Jefferson subsequently were first and second vice presidents and second and third presidents of USA respectively and both died on July 04, 1826; 50 years after independence! He also then mentioned that one of the important person on Indian History also died on July 04, 1902 and that was Swami Vivekananda and invited Romesh Joshi to recite Swamiji’s poem. Romesh nicely presented the poem.
News Update:
Visit to Banner Alzheimer’s Institute:
Group of interested members planned to visit Banner Alzheimer’s Institute on July 06 afternoon and 14 members visit was scheduled by the members. They all were received by Banner Alzheimer’s Institute staff and what was supposed to be an hour visit to various departments was extended over two hours with many questions and discussion with the Banner Institute by our senior members, five of them being medical doctors. Jagdish Sagar also joined this visit and Dr. Kinal Bhatt from Banner Institute and Jamie Flesher from Legacy Home Care were other members of our interest in this tour to Banner Institute. Jamie and Dr. Kinal agreed to visit our senior center and make presentations in future.
Research Project “All of Us”:
Dr. Prakash Kotecha apprised us about a very beneficial research project called ‘All of Us’ pertaining to the health issues. Former President Obama initiated the idea of Precision Medicine Initiative in 2015 and as a follow up this research has been initiated by National Institute of Health?. One million people from the various races and cross sections of society would participate in it. It will span over a period of ten years. People’s personal information and data would be collected and secured for privacy issues. This will serve as data bank for future research on various topics of interest. Interested members can review about it at https://allofus.nih.gov/about and join in through the website: https://www.joinallofus.org/en. He talked about why and how people of different races are affected in different ways on health issues and how genetics, life style and environment contribute to it.
?Antakshari:
We had an excellent Antakshari program conducted by Romesh Joshi on July 19th and the groups enthusiastically participated. As usual it was played Ladies Vs Gents. The environment was very cheerful and pleasant. Both parties supported each other. At the end of the program, Romesh Joshi added cherry on the cake by giving a lively performance, singing an English song uplifting the spirits of those who don’t understand Hindi songs.
Obituary:
Our member Dr. Raghunath Rodda Reddy passed away in Chicago on 29th June and his funeral was scheduled for 3rd July. Members prayed to almighty for his soul to rest in eternal peace and observed silence for a minute in the prayer.
Lunch Sponsors: Lunch for the month was sponsored by Vinodbhai & Kokilaben Shah, Darshan and Mahesh Diwan, Srikanth Vaidya and Deviben and Babulal Gohil, and Bhadrikbhai Patel besides the members going out for the lunch on Independence Day celebration.
Next Month Programs:
August 02: Picnic at Prescott
August 16: India Independence Day Celebration
Photographs Courtesy: Jon Banks and Pradyumna Kshatriya