Seattle Gala 2011

Key supporters of India's leading education movement hosted 225 guests at the Seattle Pratham Gala on September 17 to raise awareness and funds to help end illiteracy in India. This year the community of individuals and organizations raised a record breaking $280,000 to support the mission of Pratham. The event introduced the Seattle Chapter Executive Director, Viren Kamdar, who emceed the evening and featured Pratham USA co-founder and current Pratham Ambassador Mr. Yogi Patel. The evening began with a wedding theme and arriving guests were greeted with wedding music, traditional gifts and a backdrop that featured flowing silk and decorative rangoli.

Viren Kamdar spoke briefly about the tremendous growth over the four year history of the Seattle Chapter and the increased momentum that the organization has developed. Anoop Gupta, a founding board member, then described his own reasons for giving, including the scale of Pratham’s impact and the transparency of its operations.

Videos during the evening highlighted the reach of the organization in India, as well as visits to Pratham schools sites by Seattle Board Members. Another founding board member, Pradeep Singh, gave an impassioned speech explaining Pratham’s work and how this work is measured and assessed. Pradeep was followed by the keynote speaker, Pratham Ambassador, Mr. Yogi Patel. Yogi described his own journey from his childhood in an illiterate household, like so many of the students that Pratham is meant to help, through his college education and career. Throughout his story he made clear the impact that education had in changing his life and he made an earnest appeal for individuals to support Pratham by generating awareness, sharing technologies, and helping raise money to transform the educational landscape of all of India’s children. The local Seattle community proudly rose to the challenge and brought in a record fundraising year for 2011. 

Pratham Seattle thanks Gold Corporate Sponsors - Intelius, Aditi, Prithvi and Concur; Gold Foundation Sponsor – The Satya and Rao Remala Foundation, Silver Foundation Sponsor – The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and others - their generous support made this event possible. 

Click here for more pictures of the event