Feb 216 min read

VT SEVA DETROIT 8TH ANNUAL RAAS EVENT 2023

Updated: Mar 3

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."

-Winston Churchill

As this wonderful quote says, we could make a life by giving a helping hand to the visually challenged and Tribal children with our generous donations.

Our heartfelt thanks to the generous support of compassionate hearts throughout the year for the greater cause.

VT Seva Detroit successfully celebrated the 8th Annual Cultural Event RAAS-2023 on November 4th, 2023. RAAS is our Annual Celebration event, culminating a great year of various fundraising activities and volunteering services to the community.

A memorable evening with marvelous Entertainment & Sumptuous Dinner

Some of the key highlights of the event:

Raised funds for 342 Visually Challenged and Tribal students’ education.
450+ people attended.
Sumptuous Dinner with Mesmerizing Entertainment
First-ever game night & Electrifying Open-floor Dandiya dance to engage the audience.
Special Thanks to all the Donors, Volunteers, Participants, Sponsors, Choreographers, and everyone for bringing great success to VTSEVA Detroit and keeping VTSEVA Detroit at the Top in service.

Great things happen only when there is a gathering of great minds & kind hearts.

VT Seva Detroit board acknowledged the year-long hard work of our dedicated volunteers and kind donors with an evening of music, dance, game, food, fun, and celebration.

The evening event started with Mr. Srinath, Ms. Priya, and Ms. Vanitha welcoming the donors/volunteers.

The event started around 5 pm with Deepa Prajwalana by Mr. Kishen, Ms. Sunitha, Mr. Madhavan, Mr. Sudheer, Mr. Srinath, Ms. Vanitha, and Ms. Priya.

Ms. Priya introduced EMCEE coordinator Mr. Arvind, who mentored our youth EMCEE team. Mr. Aravind introduced the youth. The event was followed by Prayers from Prajna students, the American National Anthem by Shivani & Indian National Anthem by JET Michigan Prajna students.

The Director of VT Seva Detroit, Mr. Srinath Babu Karnati, explained the impact that both Volunteers and Donors created in 2023 and thanked them for all the support they provided to VT Seva and the local community. VT Seva Detroit conducted 70+ events in 52 weeks in 2023 and is leading nationwide.

VT Seva National Secretary Mr. Sudheer Koppu addressed the audience and thanked them.

VT Seva National Youth Director and VT Seva Detroit Volunteer Coordinator Ms. Vanitha Gopalan talked about all the community service projects conducted in 2023 and thanked all the donors.

VT Seva National Joint Secretary – Communications and VT Seva Detroit YB Outreach Coordinator Ms. Priya Jaisankar talked about Youth Board projects, including Outreach Project and Walkathon. Explained the projects conducted by 3 VT Seva High School Clubs, including the new high school club established in 2023. Thanked all the youth volunteers and High School Club teams.

Please review the short video below on the key accomplishments.

VT Seva Detroit Sports Coordinator Mr. Suresh Rajan talked about various sports activities conducted throughout the year and thanked the participants.

VT Seva Detroit Digital library coordinator Ms. Asha Puranam explained about the Digital library project and thanked the contributors.

VT Seva Detroit YB Director Ms. Nalini Aduri talked about Youth board Projects and thanked all the Youth volunteers, parents, and High School Club teams.

VT Seva Youth Board Parent and Volunteer Ms. Kanchana Perumalla spoke about Troy High School club activities and shared her reflections as a parent on how VT Seva shaped the high school club board members as leaders in the High School Club.

Youth EMCEES also shared presentations throughout the evening.

1. Youth Empowerment Presentation - Oviya and Amogh

2. Education Presentation - Sai & Abhi

3. Health Care Presentation - Shreya & Veena

4. Disaster Recovery Presentation - Shruthi & Kaustubh

In 2023, VT Seva Detroit Youth Board did a fantastic job serving the community and environment by participating in many volunteering events and raising money to support 50+ students' education through various summer camps and fundraising projects. They celebrated their 4th anniversary and had a party for the senior sendoff. A recap of their achievements in 2023 are

- 180+ Youth Volunteers

- 18 Projects

- 10 Youth-led Projects

- 3 High School Clubs

- 6 Environmental, 6 Community Service, 2 Health & 5 Education Projects

- 1000+ volunteer hours

- Raised $3600+ to support families impacted by cancer

- Raised nearly $25,000 through an outreach program to support Nethra Vidyalaya student's education

- Many students acquired leadership skills and felt confident

Please watch the video below to see the summary of Detroit Youth Board's accomplishments in 2023

A few core members presented awards to all the performers and local volunteer team members.

Rocking Dance and Awesome Vocal Performances:

We had a gala of professional teams and local talent throughout the evening that rocked the stage from classical to Bollywood fusion. Thanks for the Goose Bump performances by

Nrithyapooja Dance Academy - Classical Dance
Usha's Kuchipudi Dance Academy - Classical Dance
Usha's Kuchipudi Dance Academy - Classical Dance
Rhythm Arts Dance Academy Junior Team - Bollywood Dance
Nrithyalaya School of Bharatanatyam - Bollywood Dance
Swaravedika - Girls Group Song
Smruti's Dancing Mist - Bollywood Fusion Dance
Rhythm Arts Dance Academy (Pre Teens-Team) - Bollywood
RVD - Bhangra by Jagtar Sohal team
Manzat Special - Youth volunteer Abhinav & Team (University of Michigan Students)
Rhythm Arts Dance Academy - Adult Group
Swaravedika - Boys Group Song

VT Seva Detroit Team has introduced two new items this year.

Game-time by Ms. Keerthi Dingari & Electrifying open-floor Dandiya dance to engage the audience.

Mr. Srinath invited the PVSA and Jeeyar Award winners of 2022. Core members awarded them with medals and trophies.

Congratulations to all PVSA and Jeeyar Award winners.

No event is complete without delicious food and dance. After the dinner and other programs, the event concluded with an open-floor Dandiya Dance.

Thanks to the bighearted local restaurants below for sponsoring delicious food. Thanks to Mr. Sudhakar Kolluri for the advice to the food department.

Our dedicated volunteers worked tirelessly throughout the day to pick up food, load, unload, and set up the kitchen area to serve hot food for the RAAS attendees.

Kudos to everyone engaged in the end-to-end process, and thanks to all the volunteers for their services.

RAAS is the best example of this quote: "No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it." – H.E. Luccock.

Congratulations to all of you for making our annual event a successful one👏👏

It would not have been possible to conduct such a successful event without such a large group of our AMAZING, DEDICATED, and ENTHUSIASTIC volunteers:

All the below volunteers (adult and youth) did a terrific job in all the areas identified.

Thanks to all the unsung supporters for this great cause. It would not have been possible to pull off such a HUGE event without your constant support and help.

AREAS	ADULT VOLUNTEERS	YOUTH VOLUNTEERS
Setup, Hall, Stage Décor, Photo booth Team	Akshay & Pratyusha Kanchana Perumalla Vanitha Gopalan Suresh Rajan Keerthysri Dingari Srivardhan Dingari Sony Devarashatty Komathy Muhinthan Neha Ved P	Jishnu Kandalam Sai Sahasra Namuduri Komathy Selvarajah Hajanthan and Varshan Kaustubh Dingari Nikhil Aerabati Hrudya Kishore Usharani Ragothaman Kirupali Sathyanathan Kushi Kanumuri
Registration Desk Team	Anand Renganathan, Latha Nimmagadda , Jaisankar Kannan	Prisha Agarwal Shivani Nimmagadda Sreenika Perumalla
Program Coordination and Slide deck creation	Priya Jaisankar
Volunteers Coordination Team	Vanitha Gopalan	Neha Ved Shraya Ved
Donation Forms Team	Jaisankar Kannan	Shreya Srivatsan Saisha Srivatsan
Snack Serving Team		Sai Sahasra Namuduri Rishabh Mavatoor Pelon Lin Hajanthan Muhinthan
Stage Assist Team	Mrudula Paturi & Kalyani Shetty	Sneha Chandrasekar
Projector setup and Support team	Santhosh & Sudheer Koppu
Sound System	Srinivas Raju and Viswa Teja (Lucky)
Presentation Team	Priya and Nalini	Kaavya & Harish
Game Organizers	Keerthi, Kanchana, Srilatha
Emcee Team	Arvind Narayanan	Oviya, Veena, Amogh, Shreya, Sai Sriram, Kausthubh, Abishristi & Shruthi
Gift Labelling Team	Pavani & friends
Photography and Video Recording Team	Santhosh & Nitin Prakruthi
Food pickup team	Raghunathan Namuduri Suresh Rajan Srivardhan Dingari Venkat Pisipati Chandrasekhar Jaisankar Kannan Kalyani Shetty Sreenivas Cheemalamarri Swaroop Kancharla Anand Renganathan Srilatha Kaparthi
Dinner Serving Team	Nandini Cheemalamarri Vidhya Anand Magesh Kumar Chandru Srinivas Pavani Namuduri Architha Kramadati Komathy Muhinthan Keerthysri Dingari Srivardhan Dingari Asha Puranam Jyothi Karnati Sirisha Pratapa Niveditha Mavatoor Swaroop Kancharla Srilatha Kaparthi	Kalki Renga Anand Rishabh Mavatoor Hajanthan and Varshan Yathi Shekar Debbata Swara Rege Nikhil Aerabati Hrudya Kishore Aanya Janga Sailaja Pochimreddy Shreyas Posam
Dinner area Food trays & Crowd control Supervisors Team	Suresh Rajan Vanitha Gopalan Sreenivas Cheemalamarri Venkat Pisipati Chandrasekhar Vijay Perumalla
Dinner Area Backup Helpers		Sai Sahasra Namuduri Akshitha Narla Diya Harsha Ritvik Harsha Kushi Kanumuri Anirvin Ramanan
Clean up activities	The entire Core team with their families and kids
Social Media Updates	Nandini Cheemalamarri

Our sincere appreciation and thanks to:

NRIVA team, Bhavya's team, Detroit Telangana Club, and Destined for Greatness - Ford Wellness Center, President Shadora Ford for gracing the event.
Shadora Ford for the Chrome book donation to the visually challenged student.

This was one of the best events we ever had. Thanks to all event sponsors, donors, supporters, guests, and volunteers who helped make this event successful.

Finally, many thanks to Mr. Srinath & Mr. Sudheer for your leadership.