What’s well begun is half done…
This quote couldn’t be truer! In 2 months, COMA has already conducted 2 very successful events for our community.
Bowling 2018
An enthusiastic group of more than 30 met at Gahanna Lanes on Jan 28th, for a fun filled afternoon of bowling. The event being the first of its kind, adults and kids enjoyed equally, be it if it was their first time or if they were bowling professionals. Two hours flew by when everyone was having so much fun!
Valentines Family Night
Soon after bowling, came one of the big events of the year, Valentines Family Night at DCRC. This year we had a record turn out of more than 165! Without your participation, the event wouldn’t have been a success. A huge thank you to each and everyone who attended the event in spite of the bad weather we had that evening. Emcees Anjana Hari and Arun Davis did an amazing job driving the show and engaging the audience. Special shout outs to Pramod, our videographer; Ashish, our photographer; Pratheesh, our DJ; Lloyd and Vinay, our AV guys and our Youth Wing volunteers. There were a number of new programs we introduced this year like live Dubsmash, music program by kids and adults and a professional photo booth with instant photo prints. We had several fun games like Dumb charades, Pass the Hoop and Catch the eggs which was enjoyed by all. Dinner from Bawarchi was like the cherry on top! Don’t believe us? The pictures speak for themselves!
Check them out… Photos Videos
Support for Families of Fallen Westerville City Police Officers
Appreciate your noble gesture of donating to support the families of Westerville Fallen Officers. You have contributed a total of $575 and including the additional contribution from COMA, we will hand over a cheque of $1000 to the Westerville City Police this week.
Upcoming events
1. Session on Immigration and Visas
Simakovsky Immigration Attorneys in association with COMA is conducting a session on Work and Study visas on February 27th 5:00-7:00pm. With the current immigration climate, we are hopeful this session will be quite useful for many in our community. You may either be present in person at their downtown Columbus office location or dial in to attend the session. More details in the flyer on the right->
Dial in: 515.604.9604; Access Code: 128073
2. Social Evening with Board games and Cards
Third week of March (more details to follow).
3. COMA 10-year Anniversary 5K run/ 2K Walk
7th April 8:00-10:00am at Liberty Park. (Tentative) Proceeds will be used for YWCA Host a Meal program. All participants will receive a T-shirt and Kerala breakfast at the end of the event (more details to follow).
4. Chitra Shalabhangal, Mega Musical Event
A live orchestra event led by Chitra, the nightingale of the South Indian film industry.
Music director Sarrath and upcoming singers Roopa Revathi and Nishad are also with the team.
- Majority of the songs will be Malayalam and Tamil, with a few other language songs. Ticket prices are $100, $75 and $50. Send an email to comatickets@gmail.com to reserve your seats!
Venue: Dublin Jerome High School
Date: May 19th 2018
Time: 4:30-8:00pm
COMA Youth Wing News
COMA Youth Wing members met on February 10th and conducted a review of its activities in 2017 and discussed its goals for 2018. The wing has decided to meet monthly every second Sunday. You can contact them at coma-youth-wing@googlegroups.com
Ohio State Campus Visit (Friday, March 30th)
Nikita Sathiaprakash has volunteered to conduct Ohio State Campus tours to whoever is interested. She is “certified” in giving tours at OSU as she ran International Student Orientations this past summer. She can show you what they don’t show you on the tours, as well as what is actually on the tour, and answer any and all questions. She can let you know individually of her schedule so you can pick when to go. She is happy to walk around with you, your parents, a group, or anyone who is interested!
If you are interested in attending a class, you need to be at the campus by 8:45 am at the latest and bring any questions you have about anything with them. You should expect a 55 min Organic Chemistry 2 lecture (so you can bring something to work on during the class if you want), and then a 1 hour walking tour of OSU campus that will be tailored to what the group wants to see/what is given on a real tour. You need to dress appropriately for weather and wear comfortable shoes. Depending on group size, a bus can be used to go around campus but some walking should be expected.
You can see a real dorm room, experience real campus food (if you choose to), and learn the history of OSU. You will walk through many of the rigorously used buildings on campus so the group can see what a college student experiences on a daily basis. Water would be a good idea to bring (or a reusable bottle is great -campus have fountains). Food is up to you-if you want to eat some campus food, you are more than welcome to ($8 is the standard meal cost) and they have options for everyone (gluten free, allergies, vegetarian, etc), but you are welcome to bring food as well.
Young children who are not prepared to walk or stay quiet for 55 min (if attending the class) should not be brought. There unfortunately is no free parking on campus, so parking in one of the OSU parking garages (addresses at osu.campusparc.com) would be best. The rate is about $2 an hour (can be seen on site) but max charge is $12ish. You may bring devices to take pictures as there are many great places on campus for pictures.
Please email us at coma.officials@gmail.com if you or your child is interested.
Toastmasters
We are in the process of starting two Toastmasters Clubs, one each for the adults and youth [12 to 18 years, with exceptions on case by case basis]. Jacob Vengal, who has been an active participant in the club for years, will be the coordinator.
Toastmaster Adults and Youth Clubs will be conducted monthly at the same location simultaneously. Meetings typically last an hour. [Note that the initial meeting is likely to be for 1.5 hours]. Please contact Jacob directly if you would like to join a meeting or learn more about the Club.
Jacob Vengal – email: vengalj@outlook.com
Community Service News
Meals on Wheels – Nish Nishant
COMA has progressed from doing MOW deliveries once a month to twice a month. Starting February 2018, COMA will be handling MOW deliveries on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. Thank you to this month’s volunteers.
Route 1: February 11th – Arun Radhakrishnan, Arun Chand and Valsan Palika were the volunteers who helped deliver the meals.
Route 2 will be carried out on February 25th by Thomas Varughese, Rachel Varughese, Nithin Aryan
Please note that we are still welcoming volunteers to the COMA volunteer pool. A typical Meals on Wheels delivery involves about 4 hours of your time. If you’d like to volunteer, please get in touch with the EC team via coma.officials@gmail.com
Please let us know if you would like to get involved with any of the following:
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- YWCA Cook a Meal
- COMA Youth Wing
- Malayalam Class
FIA Events
Please see below link for more information regarding events by FIA
http://www.comaohio.org/index.php/2018/02/24/local-events/
If you have not already, we request you to become a member of COMA at COMA Membership this year and support our activities. There are several benefits of being a member. In addition to ‘guaranteed’ discounts for major events, you will have discounts available at some of the Indian retailers, access to Malayalam class etc. We also request you to allocate some time to volunteer for our regular events and our community outreach events! These are extremely satisfying moments!
Till next time…
EC-2018
Nice job on the Newsletter. Well done.