Thank you very much friends

Once again our friends have shown us the value of true friendship. They have all come to our rescue on this big day. We had more than 300 players on June 27th participating in various levels of Men and Womens tournaments. Thank you all very very much.

Shiv: Without Shiv we wouldn’t have been able to manage this day with such success. He was there for us for everything. Without him we wouldn’t have been able to conduct this tournament so smoothly. We were running for Shiv for everything, especially for resolving couple of conflicts that happened here and there. And he resolved them with such panache, we are very grateful to him. Thank you so much Shiv.

Mani Pachineelam, Madhu, Chinmaya, Mani Sreedharala: All of them came at 6 AM in the morning and left at 7PM. How can we even thank you all? You have helped us setup the nets, umpiring, scoring the games, cleaning up and packing. We all know the hardest part of any event is cleaning up the mess at the end of the day as we all are just waiting to go. And here they are, coming forward to clean up, dismantling the nets and packing everything into the car. Start to finish they were all with us. Thank you all very much. We all appreciate it. You have been our strength for the day. It is because of people like you we gain the momentum for our future events. Madhu, we are glad to have you in our Janyaa team.

Venkat & Ravi: Thank you so much Venkat and Ravi for offering your help. Venkat & Ravi helped us through out the day with umpiring. This is one of the crucial tasks of they day as we needed experienced people. And without Venkat and Ravi it would’ve been very hard for us.   Thank you both very much for all your help.

Devi, Lakshmi: Thank you Devi and Lakshmi for coming early in the morning at 6AM. Your experience helped us prepare for the day better. We are glad to have friends like you.

Amitabh, Gajapati: Thank you Amitabh and Gajapati for helping us out from 6AM in the morning inspite of personal commitments. Gajapati, we appreciate all your support. We wouldn’t have been able to proceed smoothly without you helping us out with scoring and other key tasks.

Arun, Yufeng: Thank you Arun and Yufeng for all your help. ‘We cannot say no to you’ is what we heard. We are glad to know you both.

Anshuman: Thank you Anshu for lemonade and helping us with umpiring. Nice to have you at the tournament.

Priya: Came to watch her husband play and ended up umpiring for us. And the best part, did not complain and was more than happy to help us out. Thank you very much for your support Priya. We appreciate your time.

Snehith: Thank you Snehith for helping us out through the day starting with setting up the nets. We understand it’s not easy to come at 6AM in the morning. But you have been wonderful.

Benarjee: Came to watch the game and ended up running errands for us. Thank you very much Benarjee for coming to our rescue. We are grateful to you.

Thanks to all our friends who loaned us their nets, balls & water containers for us.

Usha: has played a pivotal role in the whole tournament. It has been more difficult for her because she not only organized the entire tournament, but also participated. A very well done job Usha. Without you we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this. Janyaa is glad to have you in the team.

Read Full Post »

Successfully completed Men&Women Volleyball Tournament

Our Men and Women volleyball tournament over the weekend on June 27th has been a huge success. We had over 300 players during the day and add to that list of supporters & spectators.  It was like a carnival. The day ended with a high note with all winners receiving trophies. Here are the winners (Names of team members at the end of this post):

We have raised enough money to complete the funding of our 2009 project. Thank you all very much for supporting our cause. We owe the success of our 2009 program to you – we know it will be a success  – and why not, when we have so many of you behind us.

The day started at 6AM with around 12 of us reaching the park to setup 10 nets.  By now we have become experienced with setting up nets as we have done that quite often with our practice sessions during weekdays and weekends. So it wasn’t that difficult. Thanks to all of you who donated nets and balls to us.

Games started on time at 8AM simultaneously in all courts.  By noon we completed round 2 for Beginners and round 1 for Intermediate. One game or other was always going on in the park at any given time and finally all the games were completed around 6:30 PM. All the finals were very impressive where the 2 best teams were competing heavily with each other. All of them went to 3 games each team fighting till the end. Wow, what a finish they had.

Once again, thank you all again for your wonderful support and sportsman spirit.

Mighty Dravidians:
Bala Sitaraman
Jayanthi Kalyanaraman
Naveen Dorai
Prasanna Ranganathan
Sasidharan Vadakapet
Shyam Balasubramanian (Captain)
Venkat Venkataramani

Six pack spikers:
Kannan
Padhu
Gopi
Bala
Srini
Subbu
Jai
Scotty

Indian Stealers B:
Raj
Inder
Sridhar
Arun
Sandeep
Bhaskar
Manas

Powers B:
Johnson
Anand
Vinod
Vishnu
Sarthak
Ramu
Krishna

VB Gang:
Rajesh Sajja
Balaji Parimi
Srikanth Koneru
Bhaskar Kolla
Bharat Yarlagadda
Mandeep Chadha
Srinivas Vaddi
Prerana Vaddi

BATSS:
Simon
Sathish
Suresh
Anil
Bala
Harish
Peter
Balaji
Ram

Strangers:
Jayanthi Kalyanaraman
Lilia Landaverde
Lily Tam
Norma
Raji Kalyanaraman
Socorro Reyes
Rosa

Powers A:
Rohit
Yakgna
Sanjeeva
Shiva
Aakash
Raj

Blue Fire:
Subhash
Harpreet
Orijeet
Gurjit
Bindesh
Raju
Dev

Read Full Post »

Thank you all for helping with our coed volleyball tournament

Volunteer: One who offers service at free will. Free will – that’s what it is. All of them offered us help even before we asked. We are proud to have such wonderful people as friends. We wouldn’t have been able to execute our first ever fundraising event – coed volleyball tournament without the support from all of you.  Thank you all. We know you didn’t have to do any of this. But you did. We are grateful to you.

Shiv – who conducted few volleyball tournaments for BATA and others – offered to help and guided us through the whole process. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without him.  He helped us with our schedule, preparation and on the day of the event with the most important tasks of deciding who proceeds to next round based on the scores. Well, we needed someone really experienced here and Shiva did a great job for us. Thank you Shiva.

Madhu, Sudhir – are part of Janyaa. In spite of some important personal commitments, they have come early in the morning at 6AM, helped us setup the nets with the rest of the team. They made sure that the games start on time and also with scoring. The first 4 hours of the day were crucial and we needed all the help we can get. Thank you Madhu and Sudhir.

Mani Pachineelam,  Chinmaya, Yufeng  & Mani Sreedharala– proved what friends are for. They are our colleagues. They definitely didn’t have to help us. But they came early and stayed till the end helping us with setting up & taking out nets, scoring etc. Thank you Mani, Chinmaya and Mani. And of course, thanks to Yufeng who came by only to take pictures of the tournament at our request. Thank you Yufeng for accommodating our last minute request.

Gajapati: helped us out because his friend Amitabh requested him to. That’s a very kind gesture. He did not know anyone from Janyaa, but still came early in the morning at 6AM and worked with us. Thank you Gajapati. That was very nice of you.

Snehith: helped us because his cousin Madhu requested him to. Thank you very much Snehith for coming in spite of your other commitments. You helped us out a lot during the busy time of the day.

Grace: who got in touch with us because she came to know about the tournament. She said if she cannot play in the tournament as the registration has already closed, she would at least like to volunteer.  This is very touching.  I have never heard of someone willing to spare their time for someone they have never met. Thank you Grace. It was wonderful knowing you.

Padma Pani: who registered for Men’s tournament on 27th and not for coed. He came to watch his friends play, but ended up helping us out.  Padma Pani, thank you very much for your support.

Sai, Ravi: participated with their teams. They did not leave immediately. They stayed back and helped us with umpiring and other activities. Thank you Sai and Ravi, it was very nice of you.

Anshuman and Samyukta: helped us on the day with various activities. Thank you Samyu for preparing the lemonade. Thank you Anshu for umpiring on the fly.

Devi and Lakshmi: who came early in the morning just because their friend Usha is the main organizer. Both of them took the lead immediately and helped us setup the nets. Without their help we wouldn’t have managed to start the game on time. Also thank you Devi for bringing water and thank you Lakshmi for your chairs.

Thanks to all our friends who loaned us their nets and balls without which it would’ve been difficult for us.

Kudos to Usha Hanumolu: It was Usha’s idea to organize a volleyball tournament as she is a player herself. It was through her that we met some of the volunteers above – especially Shiv. Usha organized the whole tournament single handedly from start to finish. She has amazing strength and energy. Along with taking care of various activities on the 20th, she also played with her team.  Wonderful job Usha.

Last but not the least – the whole Janyaa team: It was excellent team work from Janyaa team – including Usha, Madhu, Sudhir and Venu. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without all of us working together. Great effort.

Read Full Post »

Coed volleyball tournament executed successfully

It was an extremely busy Saturday for us at Janyaa. We had our first ever fund raising event – Coed Volleyball Tournament. It was a huge success. We had around 200 people at the tournament including players, volunteers & spectators. We had games in 6 courts simultaneously without a glitch. How could we achieve this? Well, we had lot of very nice people helping us out (I am posting a separate one on the same. Please checkthis page to know who those wonderful people are).

All of us arrived at the park at 6AM. Quickly started off with setting up the nets, drawing 10 ft lines, setting up the canopy, registration desks, getting ready with score sheets etc. It was 8AM and we barely made it with everyone’s help. We managed to start on time.

All the rounds went very smoothly. There were some players who never played before.  In some teams players were playing together for the first time. They competed with experienced teams and enjoyed it too. There was team spirit everywhere.

All in all it was a wonderful experience for all of us.

Finals was between BATSS and Jillmax A teams. It was a nail biting experience. I don’t know how the players were. But those of us watching from sidelines were not breathing for sure. First set was won by BATSS and second went to Jillmax A. The deciding third set was for 25 points but went on for another 4 points. None of them gave up. They were all fighting for it hard.  Of course one must say, irrespective of who the winner is, we should appreciate both the teams for giving us such a great match. Thank you teams.

Janyaa pictures are here.

Jillmax A – CHAMPIONS:

Shiv Peparthi
Usha Hanumolu
Devi Benarjee
Yakgna Nayaranana
Rohit Kamat
Sanjava Reddy

BATSS Runners Up:

Simon
Balaji
Sathish
Smitha
Jeanny
Vijay
Kamal
Ram

Fremont Lazy Boys – 3rd place:

Subha
Geeta
Venki
Kannan
Seetha
Murali
Gowtham

 

Read Full Post »

Janyaa going Live

Now that we have VMC’s permission, we are going full throttle. Our Orientation session is scheduled for first week of July. We understand the challenges involved in our program and we hope to work with them as we progress.

Read Full Post »

VMC permission granted

We got the permission from Vijayawada Municipal Commission office to work with the 4 schools we identified for year 2009-10. We are very thankful to the Municipal Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna for supporting our cause and granting us the permission.  Thanks to Anupama Chava who facilitated this and made our lives easier.

We are planning for Orientation session in the second week of June and our first teacher workshop will be in the last week of June.

Right now, we are looking for someone who can build desks and cupboards for these schools. We need 60 benches in total and 8 cupboards. It’s hard to find someone who can do this for us at a reasonable price and good quality. Let’s keep trying. Hopefully we will find a solution soon and deliver these to the schools.

Read Full Post »