RASIKA - Orchestra/concert in South Riding, VA -- May 9th 2009

Subject:OPEN-Rasika Concert on May 9, 2009 at Freedom High School, South Riding, VA

Greetings from OPEN! We hope all is well with the OPEN community. The fifth OPEN-Rasika concert is scheduled to be held at Freedom High School, South Riding, VA, on May 9 at 5.30pm. Please note the change in venue. Please mark your calendars and call the following people for tickets as soon as you can (over 100 people missed the concert in 2007 due to its being sold out). Kumar: 703-327-6907
Chox: 703-378-5878
Sushila: 703-716-2545
Suresh: 703-430-3677
Sundaresan: 703-798-3962
Latha: 703-830-2359

Please forward this to your friends who are new to the area or are not aware of the OPEN-Rasika concert. We thank our friends in Rasika for toiling through weekends of practice to put on a great show. We look forward to another sold out concert, an evening of golden oldies, Ilaiyaraaja 80's and Rahman 00's. Clips from previous years' concerts are at the OPEN web page;
direct links are below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfXljI2wpbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_76XMMjQm90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TopjOXQbL-8

We now have approval as a non-profit foundation in India, with the attendant tax exemption for charitable donations under the Indian tax code. Sriram Sankaran, one of the founders of OPEN, is now located in Bangalore; Arvind Balaraman, one of the first members, is now located in Chennai; and these two are driving projects in India. It would be great if members of the OPEN community ask their friends and family in India to contribute towards our common cause. Our projects continue in 2009: 1. We supplied benches and desks; and scholarships for 80 students, at a total cost of $4000, to Ganapathy Girls High School in Chennai. 2. We added a new school to our list: The Lady Willington School in Chennai educates a large number of children of fishermen. This school had a student top the State in one subject of the Board exams. We provided $3000 to this school for scholarships. 3. We continued our partnership with IGNITE and provided $9000 for scholarships for Polytechnic vocational students. We are becoming a large part of IGNITE fund-raising and we would like to continue this deserving program. We will continue funding benches and desks at the Garodia high schools and scholarships for nursing students in partnership with the NGO Kaingkarya.
Our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity.
We request that (tax deductible) contributions payable to "OPEN Inc." be sent to:
Kumar Thiagarajan
25470 Gimbel DriveSouth Riding, VA 20152
Shankar Nagarajan
15 Eagle TerraceJefferson, MA 01522
Ramprasad Santhanakrishnan
810 Graywyck DrSeven Fields, PA 16046
If you would like your contribution to go towards the "Educate a Child" program, please mention it on your check memo section. Please consider investing in India's future. To delay may mean to forget.
Sincerely,
Kumar Thiagarajan
Sriram Sankaran
Rajesh Ramadoss
http://www.openindia.org/