Spirit of ISW at Spirit of Shrewsbury 2009

Category Blog

Last Updated on Saturday, 10 October 2009 15:51

On Sept. 26th and 27th, ISW successfully participated in the Spirit of Shrewsbury fall festival and really exhibited the Spirit of ISW.

Oak Street Expo (Saturday Sept 26th)

Our ISW booth and the Blood Pressure Clinic (Health Stop) was a great success at the Expo. Health Stop had a record number of patients this year.

It was 106 patients, according to Dr. Passey, the organizer of the Health Stop. Four doctors volunteered their services.

The booth had Information on India, ISW and India Center rental. It displayed traditional clothing and offered snacks and handcrafted gifts for sale.

Samosas and hot apple cider was a big hit. Most of the Samosas and Apple cider were gone within the first two hours after their serving time.Mehndi was slow in the morning, but was quite busy in the afternoon. Free Bindi was a hit too with lots of kids and a few women.

Visitors to the booth were very friendly and some of them asked interesting questions about India. Some told us their own experiences when they visited India themselves or about the visits of the people they know. In view of these interactions and the Health Stop visits, We left in the evening with the feeling that we definitely moved a few steps closer to achieving our goal of ISW reaching out to the people in the communities that we live in.

Thanks a million again to all who helped. Thanks to all the doctors for volunteering their time on a weekend.

The Parade: (Sunday Sept 27th):

The weather turned out to be rainy that day. As a result, some of the parents of the kids that were going to participate on the Float, decided for their kids not to participate. As a result, we had to cancel the float. Our rainy day plan was to still walk in the parade without the float. Most of the adults, including the parents of the kids, who were planning to join the parade did not come. However five enthusiastic people helped us in keeping our rainy day plan and ISW kept it's promise to the town about walking in the parade. We even made a makeshift float instantaneously. Parade organizers were very appreciative of our participation.

Thanks to Dr. Passey, Rajiv and Priti Dayal and Meera Gupta who, in spite of the rainy weather, decided to walk in the parade right from the beginning with the ISW banner. We were a group of five including Suresh Gupta, during most of the parade. We decorated Rajiv's car to turn it into a kind of Float with Indian Music. People cheered us up as we passed by, with some of them saying "Hey India Society, way to go". Carolyn Passey kept on cheering us up too and was a constant source of Inspiration from the sidewalks. It was a pleasant surprise to hear the familiar cheering voice of Neena Mohanka from the sidewalk. She was able to join us towards the later part of the parade. We had a lot of fun!!!!

Once again ISW proudly exhibited its enthusiastic spirit.

Thanks to all the people who helped for preparing for the parade and during the parade. There was a lot of work that went behind the Scenes.

Both the events turned out to be lots of fun!!!!