Naperville Aurora Shakha welcomes members and guests to visit our home on the web.
For more details contact hss.naperville@gmail.com or use contact form.
The Guru Vandana event at Eola Community Center was a huge success. The primary goal was for kids to honor their teachers in our Indian way. In Hindu culture, teacher has a status equal to God.
What better time than Teacher Appreciation Week, to welcome our teachers to our program and have the same hands that they hold each day, give them a memento and a hug and the same little mouths, that always clamour for their attention, say words in their praise?
Teachers and guests, started the event by lighting the lamp. The kids recited Shlokas in honor of the teachers. Honorable guests , Mr.Tom Weisner (Mayor of Aurora), Mr.Curt Bradshaw( President 204 school district), board members and teachers, enjoyed the cultural program and presentations by the kids.
They were also requested to share their thoughts with everyone. And one message that came loud and clear, was that this was a partnership, everyday parents and teachers work together to mold the citizens of tomorrow. Each one relies on the other to continue and compliment their work.
Another thought from someone was that we don’t thank our teachers enough during our busy lives. An occasion like this brings everyone closer.
And in this case, everyone being over 140 guests in all, including over 25 teachers and over 40 kids all the way from preschool to middle school.
Kids performed a presentation on Lezim(YogChap) and also Unity in Diversity. Surya Namaskar demonstration was performed. Several kids also gave short presentations on the different events celebrated throughout the year at Balagokulam.
This was all concluded with a sumptuous dinner, made with love by all the families participating at the event.
Please look out for more posts with pictures, videos, media coverage details etc .
For a detailed report published in triblocal click here
The calendars for teachers get filled up quickly. Parents please reach out to them so that you do not miss this unique opportunity to honor them in a group setting.
Get ready to wear your best Indian clothes to showcase our cultural outfits.
Don’t we already pay high taxes? Don’t we pay to use the facilities?
That might be an argument that will pop up in our brains. But once we look at it from a different perspective, we will see the value add. It is actually a WIn WIN situation.
Win for the community, because it shows we care. It shows that we belong. It shows ownership.
Win for us as individuals, groups, families , because it shows us that one cannot complete the responsibilities by just paying for it. Ownership and sense of belonging comes from doing, from being an active participant.
Win for kids, because its fun, you meet your friends, you spend a day running around in the park instead of being parked in front of the TV.
Win for parents, because we teach the kids the value of Sewa. The act of selfless service. To learn to give back to the community. Perhaps, this will excite them enough the clean up their yards at home and their bedrooms too. Teaching kids that service can be fun and fulfilling and not also a chore to leave as the last thing to do.
Come join us to clean up the Eola Community Center on Saturday from 9 a.m to 12:00 noon. Please wear your ganvesh to show solidairity.
Saturday, April 16th at 9AM
Meet at Eola Community Center North Entrance (Near our usual room #110)
You can stay for as short or as long as you can
FVPD will provide instructions, gloves and other equipment for clean-up
FVPD will also provide snacks & soft drinks to the volunteers
Great opportunity to involve our children in a community project
Please join us to show our commitment to the community.
The concluding event of SNY 2011 was a huge success with a large turnout.
SNY group photo post event.
The Honorable Mayor of Aurora, Mr. Tom Weisner expressed his support by attending the event and also performing some salutions with the group. He also shared his words of encouragement and interacted with the balagokulam kids.
Mayor Tom Weisner
Abhita Gupta , our Yoga guru did a phenomenal job of guiding everyone through the postures. She described the advantages of performing Surya Namaskars and also made sure that everyone was aware about the correct way of ensuring that maximum benefit is attained without causing injury to the body. She lead the event for the entire two and half hour concluding event, all the while, providing words of encouragement and praise.
The participants were divided to two teams A & B and surya namaskars were performed non-stop in a lehar (wave ) form, wherein one group performed a set of 13 SN’s and released the room to the next group. The intermittent time was used for breathing, relaxing, water and pranayam.
Please note: The Yogathon is for 2.5 hours from 10:00 am to 12:30 PM. Different groups will perform the Surya Namaskars in a wave form (lehar). The room will be divided into Team A and Team B. Team A performs X Surya Namaskars (following along with the large screen display), while Team B watches them and the instructors. Next Team B performs X+1 while Team A watches. Members are free to join either Team or take breaks as needed.
The instructors will be circulating in the room watching performers, correcting breathing patterns, postures and providing general guidance as needed.
The local chapter SNY started with a lehar at a swayamsevaks residence. This was followed by the first group session at Eola community center. Siddesh Shevade and Sachin Lokhande explained the significance and goal of SNY to new and existing members. The kids at the balagokulam were given and opportunity to chant the mantras one by one. Kids used their knowledge of various languages such as Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Spanish & Konkani in addition to English to provide he counts for the postures.
The goal this year is to achieve 1 million Surya Namaskars by over 10,000 people nationwide. Siddheshji also informed the group that representation from over 26 states has already been accounted for. He also regaled everyone with a real life story where one member, performed 1000 Surya Namaskars on Jan 15th, which was also his birthday. The kids and parents are all inspired to add our little drops of effort to the ocean of “Health for Humanity Yogathon”.
Members, guests of Naperville Shakha, please perform the Surya Namaskars at your convenience and provide the counts to Sachin Lokhande or Siddhesh Shevade. Also, please join us at the concluding mega event of SNY at Eola community center on Jan 30th 2011.
Please contact us through contact form on website for additional questions/help.
Ramayana story telling is into its third week. Kids have shown excellent retention skills for recapping the story characters. From here on out, it will get more serious with mini play acting of stories, right after the story telling. This will give them a chance to gear up for the big event.
