Chicago Gala 2011

Pratham Chicago held an intimate and moving Gala at the lovely Meadows Club on October 14th 2011 at The Meadows Club, Rolling Meadows, IL. Pratham supporters enjoyed delicious cuisine, exquisite performances, motivational remarks and comical addresses throughout the evening. Around 350 people attended the gala.

377

The event commenced with appetizers and cocktails during social hour where a silent auction took place. Prabha Vibha Singh welcomed acknowledged the numerous individuals that made the event possible and thanked everyone for their attendance as well as their continued support. The lamp lighting ceremony was followed by Dan Nainan (the Emcee) introducing Chicago Pratham president, Dr.Rajaram. After a brief speech, Dan introduces the keynote speaker of the evening, Professor of Booth School of Business at University of Chicago, Raghu Rajan.

374 Dr. Raghuram Rajan gave a rivetingly inspiring address to the audience. Dr. Rajan spoke of the importance of quality education in India and the US to find meaningful employment and grow the economy. He praised the efforts of Pratham in providing this education in India and urged them to get involved in the improvement of education in the US also. He particularly addressed the economic gap between the educated and uneducated populations and stressed that quality education is the solution reducing this gap.

Following Dr. Rajan’s brilliant speech, Rukmini Banerji came to the stage next. 376 Rukmini Banerji has been with Pratham since 1996. She is responsible for Pratham's program activities in several major states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam. Rukmini has been in the core team of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) since it was launched in 2005 and currently heads ASER Center. Dr. Rukmini Banerji traced her connections to Chicago and how teaching at a poor school in the southside of Chicago got her interested in improving education of the poor in India. She spent over 14 years in Chicago before joining Pratham. She spoke of her interaction with the Chicago Public Schools administration and University of Chicago professors and students on the day before the gala and said that this Chicago connection will be strengthened in the coming years.

378 Dan Nainan, emcee and famous standup comedian presented his comic act prior to dinner. After leaving Intel to pursue comedy full time, Dan has toured as a feature act with Robert Schimmel and Russell Peters. Dan has appeared on network television including ―Last Comic Standing‖ as well as in feature films, on radio and in an Apple ―Get a Mac commercial.

A total of 115,000 was raised during the gala with generous donations, silent auction 379 proceeds and pledges from gala attendees. Dinner was followed after the amusing comedy act. Teju Deshpande briefly thanked all attendees and volunteers for making the event possible. The evening commenced with Poonam Bhatia a well known Bollywood Singer.