Navroze, Nawruz, Nowroz, Norouz... however you
wish to say it, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our
ZAGBA members and friends a wonderful beginning of Spring and a happy and
healthy new year.
During this past
year, we have had an incredible team lead ZAGBA toward our
collective vision for Community Building, Community Education, Community
Service and Community Center. It has been a pleasure working with the
current board of Firoza Panthaki, Edul Nakra, Hufrish Sirohi, and Anaheeta
Nanavaty. Please join me in recognizing their hard work and also the
dedication of individuals who have led the Children’s and Adult Religious
Education, Youth/Sports activities, Service Activities, Zarathushti Center
of Boston (ZCB), and of those who work with them to plan and execute their
activities. In the past year, we have had a number of very successful
ZAGBA Community Building events including a well-attended formal
Papeti-Navroze event in Natick, a Jashan Gahambar event with over 17
families cooking a traditional Dhansak meal, and a Holiday Dinner Costume
Party with fun for the kids and young at heart. In addition, we have a
fantastic newsletter written and published quarterly, a first-time ever
ZAGBA community calendar, and a new ZAGBA website. Congrats to Anaheeta
Nanavaty, Parastu Dubash and Rita Kapadia for delivering these to the
ZAGBA community. Having said that, the team has no intention of resting
on its laurels. Based on feedback from the community, we will focus on
having two ‘high end’ events on each year that are fully-catered and
formal in/around March 21st and August 21st. The
rest of the events will be run and managed by our teams and will be more
cost-sensitive. For example, in April we are planning a family movie
night for the community; later in the summer we have a picnic, a canoeing
trip and another biking trip. Please take a look at the new ZAGBA website
(www.ZAGBA.org)
for the most recent schedule of events. With your input, an updated 2007
Community Directory will be completed shortly and will allow us greater
opportunities to connect with each other.
The Community
Education events seem to get stronger all the time. Both the Adult and
the Children’s classes are flourishing and sincere thanks to Nasswan
Dossabhoy for engaging the youth and some adult peers to get excitement
back into this group. The teachers of the Children’s classes – Hufrish
Sirohi, Kaizad Patel, Yezad Nalladaru, and their leader Farhad Panthaki
deserve to be recognized and applauded for their hard work and dedication.
The Community
Center – The Zarathushti Center of Boston is moving forward with continued
zeal under the leadership team of the Bhathena and Kheradi families and
looks to the community for support. You will hear much more about
developments in this effort in the coming weeks.
The Community
Service group led by Yezad Nalladaru has been active and many thanks to
all of you for your support in the recent clothing collection (I first
hand saw the gratitude from two of the locations in Mumbai when
the clothes were donated) and the Food Bank volunteering. Coming up soon
are more volunteering opportunities at the upcoming Special Olympics Games
and other events.
We
thank you all for your continued participation in and volunteering at
activities. We encourage you to renew or become new members of ZAGBA this
month as it is the start of our ZAGBA membership year. Your input is
essential as we plan and implement events that are of interest to you and
your family, so the ZAGBA Board welcomes your suggestions and your offers
to help out. Please send an email to
jhdubash@gmail.com or feel
free to call me with inputs.
Best Wishes
Ushta Te,
Jamshed
