United Indian Association started 2016 with a grand Indian Republic Day and Australia Day celebration which was held on 24th January, 2016 at Roselea Community Centre, Carlingford.
The highlight of the celebration was the honouring of HSC High Achievers who received an ATAR score of over 95. Students honoured included: Aashray Narula, Keertana Avalur Venkateshwar, Devansh Shah, Piyush Pius, Neha Dave, Anandita Soundappan, Prasanth Parasu, Dave Mohan Anand, Rohan Balani, Angad Bedi, Harjot Singh Grewal, Syam Iyer, Mansi Gupta, Adithya Sridhar, Mahima Mandal, Shivani Kaushik, Aman Sanghvi, Sachin Kinger, Chandni Suresh, Yashas Bhatt, Judy Vinmini Kennedy, Jaiparteek Singh, Saahil Jotsingani and Nihal Almeida.
Students were awarded a certificate of appreciation and medal. All students also received a gift voucher sponsored by Westpac.
Three lucky students also received additional gifts awarded by Mr Mohan Sundar of Sunlegal Blacktown. Aashray Narula highest achieving student who has enrolled in Combined Law was awarded $1000 and Keertana Avalur Venkateshwar and Devansh Shah both shared $1000 awarded to highest achieving student who has enrolled in Medicine.
Arjun Nair, all rounder top order batsman who is a part of Australia Under 19’s Cricket World Cup Team 2016 and has won several championship awards was honoured as Sportsperson of the Year 2015.
Sonia Gandhi, Director Gandhi Creations and IABCA, event specialist with over 10 years of experience in strategic marketing and end to end event management services in both government and corporate services across the Asia Pacific Region was honoured with the Outstanding Person of the Year award 2015. Sonia is a 2015 Australian Event Award winner for NSW for her cultural diversity concepts across the state, 2013 Australian Event Award winner for delivering Premier’s Harmony Day Dinner and Multicultural Media Awards and has raised nearly $50,000 for charities such as Polio Foundation, White Ribbon Australia and Alzheimer’s Australia.
Dilip Chopra, past Vice President UIA and former Councillor Hornsby Council was honoured as Senior of the Year 2015 for his continued work and support to the seniors community.
Mili Dakshin who alongwith her sister Khushi enthralled the audience with her speed painting to music in 8 minutes was honoured as Community Person of the Year 2015. Mili is a young artist studying at Macquarie Fields High School and
has used her skill to raise money for several noble causes such as Nepali earthquake relief fund, NSW Bushfire victims relief fund, Sewa Australia and Ekal Vidyalaya charities. Paintings created on that day were donated to Tamil Manram to help them raise valuable funds for Chennai Flood Affected victims. A raffle was also held to raise further funds to provide relief to the Chennai Flood Victims. Other nominees for Community Person of the Year Award included Dr Rohitas Batta, Rekha Rajvanshi, Harita Mehta, Bijinder Dugal, Jagdish Chaudhary, Yashas Bhatt and Syam Iyer were presented certificate of appreciation for their work.
Ross Watts, Regional General Manager, Westpac was given special recognition for
his valuable support to UIA and Indian Australian migrant community and for
Westpac’s efforts to raise funds for Chennai Flood Relief.
Dignitaries who attended the event included A/Consul General of India, Dr Vinod Bahade, Senator Lee Rhiannon, Damien Tudehope MP, Dr Hugh McDermott MP, Clr Gurdeep Singh, Clr Susai Benjamin and Clr Raj Datta.
UIA thanked their event sponsors Westpac, Best & Less Travel, MoneyGram, Sunlegal, Bank of Baroda and Jet Airways.
UIA has invited all to their next major event– International Women’s Day Celebration and Beyondblue Bash to be held on 5th March 2016 at Parravilla Function Centre, Parramatta. For more information, visit: www.uia.org.au.
UIA Celebrated Indian Republic Day and Australia Day 2016 added by Indian newspaper Sydney on
View all posts by Indian newspaper Sydney →