Marathon training in full swing.

Last week marathon training took place at Bluemont Park in Arlington, VA and many of our runners participated in the training.

Some of the pictures below

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming."

- Frank Shorter 

Happy Running!

AIMS India : DC Chapter Meeting minutes - June 9th 2013

Attendees:  Aliyar Sahib, Balakumar Ponnusamy,  Dinesh Ganesan,  Iyappan Kothadaraman (On-Call), Jey Venugopalan, Priya Sambasivam, Sada Palanisamy, Selvakumar Jayaraj,  Siva Venkatachalam.

 Ongoing Projects Updates:

Ø  VIDIYAL - Kanyakumari AIMS School Teaching Assistance Project (ASTA 1&2) & AIMS Student Development Centers (ASDC)

o    Received Acknowledgement Receipt of ASTA-1 and 2

o    Reviewed the project extension request for the next fiscal year funding requirement for ASTA1 & ASTA2.

o    Required to review updated funding request for these two projects & continuous support for all these centers.

o    All the board members acknowledged the funding request.

Ø  Manappakkam Student Development Centers

o    Received student’s evaluation Report for May 2013 and Received Acknowledgement Receipt of SDC.

o    Next Six Months extension of funding is in “Pending Status”

Ø  KOODU - Computer and Tailoring Training & Projector for Educational Videos Project

o     Received report for May 2013

o    Next Six Months extension of funding is in “Pending Status”

Ø  RWDT - Rural Women’s Development Trust Projects 

o    Received report for May 2013

Ø  READ - Sakkiyar Micro loan Project

o     Received report for May 2013

Ø  VIDIYAL - Child Support Center Anganwadi Aakkanur, Tittagudi Tk, Cuddalore

o    99% work is done, Coordinator should submit the project closing report in July-2013

Ø  VIDIYAL - Govt. Elementary School, A. Palayam, Tittagudi Tk, Cuddalore

o    99% of work is done, Coordinator should submit the project closing report in July-2013

Ø  NAMCO - Vidya Nivas School Kotturpuram, Chennai , Tamil Nadu

o    Project completed. Inauguration planned on June 22nd 2013.

Approved Projects:

Ø  NAMCO - Sevai illam, Thanjavur

Ø  NAMCO - SDC, Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu

New Project Proposals Reviewed: 

Ø  NAMCO – Adi Dravidar Welfare Higher Sec School in  Agarapettai, Thanjavur

o   Additional Teachers request

Ø  NAMCO - PU school Oothupatti, Dindugal district

Next AIMS India DC Chapter meeting will held in VA on 14-July-2013.

 Questions?   Please write to  info@aimsindia.net

Marathon Training Program Kickoff.

Spring is finally here and it's time to get out and get running. Yes, we are kick starting our Marathon training program this Saturday (April 13th). 

Please mark your calender and join us for the kickoff meeting at 4:00PM. 

Venue: 
Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library
7584 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22043
Date & Time: 13-APR-2013 4:00PM.

More importantly, please spread the word to your friends and colleagues. We love to see as many new faces every year.

Hope to see you all there.

Second Project: Water Purification Plant

"Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”

                                                                                                                    -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Another project of Little Drops has brought smile in the faces of School children. This time, it is a water purification plant for Aruljothi Vallalar Hr. Sec. School, Dindigul. The school neither had a proper water supply, nor a drink-able  bore-well water. This made the school suffer for a really longer time as buying water everyday was not practical either.  Not just few children, they were about 800 and teachers, looking for someone to help them.

Fortunate AIMS & Littledrop-ians, we were given an opportunity to give them hands. Two water purification plants were installed last month in the school at the cost of Rs.61000.

This was gratefuly appreciated with a thanks note from the Head Master, Directors and Correspondent of the school saying,

     Kaalthinar seitha udhavi siridheninum
     Gnalathin maanap peridhu.

and this Thirukkural means "Timely help is greater than earth, though it is small". But for us, more than anything, the happiness this project has brought them is incredible.

A motivational event, which makes us cheer up for lot more good things to take up in future !

Our first Project - Gudimalla School

Z.P.S.School in Gudimalla, Khammam District of Andhra Pradesh with the current strength of 300 students was seemed to be desperately in need of classroom furniture more than the un-levelled school premises or drinking water facilities. Although few developmental activities like constructing classrooms, water tanks were done by the kind and motivated villagers, the school was unable to raise some fund for buying furniture, which turned to be a primary need. Considering the need of the school, one of our AIMS members Mr.Lax Chepuri perceived it as a project, worth giving a try . All the formalities are taken up , shaped up to a fine proposal, submitted to AIMS and Hurray !!

We got it approved now. "The first project of little drops", being successfully started.

The approved money of total INR 2.5 Lakhs is sent to local NGO, who is responsible for the project execution, followed by tracking of work to completion from Little drops side.

Congrats to all the fund-raisers and contributors !!

We will Keep you all posted with more details and updates as and when we have it from the project site.

Little Drops Run-rate

Before I pen down the happy news of our little drops hitting half-century, score increased by one in our match :) Bats up in the air !! The score card is as follows..

Month April- 34 donors
May Month Till date- 16 donors

Chase, chase, everyone should play a better innings to speed up the run rate. !!

Littledrops Volunteer Meetup - 30th April 2011

It was a cool Saturday morning and the very first littledrops volunteer meetup just happened. The meeting place was Centennial Park, Ellicot city, MD which was a very beautiful spot by itself. A beautiful lake surround by a trial which was approximately 3 miles. It was a first face to face meet up for some of us and we had the opportunity to fix a face value for each name. We started doing the trial and there were some grumbling for some of the first time walkers in a trail. We completed the trail in about an hour and half. It was a brisk walking passing by pro runners, group exercisers and rookie’s….

Of course a volunteer meetup needs some refreshments….and voila there were doughnuts. I know!!! We went for an early morning fitness walk and had doughnuts!! Duh!! The enthusiasm was felt around the group and it dawned that a volunteer meetup could be so refreshing. The birth of little drops was shared for a few of the new comers and it was indeed a great gathering and hopefully expecting for more meetups to be happening periodically in the near future….

(Standing Left to Right:Ravi, Bala, Cheran, Mahesh, Siva, Gopal, Rabbani, Selva & Raj   Sitting Left to Right:Jey & Satish)

(Standing Left to Right:Ravi, Bala, Cheran, Mahesh, Siva, Gopal,Selva & Raj Sitting Left to Right - Ganesh, Satish & Rabbani )

Way to go Littledrops!!!!!

-Satish Krishnan

  http://saksvision.blogspot.com/