November 20, 2015

From the Desk of your PCA Team ....

This week, I look back, I remember all the areas of chennai that had water issues due to the rain.   We all saw so many drastic pictures, from water being logged at 3 feet to over two stories high.   Many families suffered due to the water.  The banks of lakes to the north of us, flooded over which caused many families to loose their basic necessities. During all the rain, our state and national civil services must be thanked. From the fire department, to police, to the national defence personnel who were deployed to help all those in need.  Chennai has always seen rain, but never this severe.  The response of our personnel terrific.  

With many in need, our school children, with the support of the school, have started a campaign to help the survivors of the floods. Many of you have received the email from the PCA grade level reps.  Please do participate.  My mother used to tell me, alone we fall, together we can make an impact. So let us, as a community (parents, students, and staff) work together to make the impact.  Below, again is the message sent to us all. 

As I look towards next week, I am reminded of the US holiday of Thanksgiving.  This is a holiday as it sounds, a day of giving thanks for all we have.  The history behind this was a day where the first Pilgrims and Indians of the US came to eat a meal together to celebrate -- that they lived!  In spring of the first year of Thanksgiving, the second settlement of Pilgrims to the US took stock of the population.  Many has died in the winter due to cold or starvation.  Many were weak.  The remaining were not sure what to grow as their seed to grow new plants was near done.  As the season began, they had also begun their friendship with their neighbors - the Indians.  Their friends had begun to show the Pilgrims how to till the soil, to sow and produce good yield of crops.  Thus, after the season was over, both Pilgrims and Indians shared a meal together to give thanks for the bounty they had received from the harvest.  Thus began the tradition of Thanksgiving. 

As we look forward to Thanksgiving, we should also give thanks to the ones who are survived the recent floods.  We should give thanks for all who have helped to make life better for all in our city.  

We hope that we can get near 100% participation from our community for relief in our area.  Hope all of you stay safe. 

Here is signing off this week....

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Event Change

We have had to change the PCA ball from April 9th to May 7, 2016.  We have had to do so for the following reasons:

1)  we needed a location which could house up to 350+ persons as this is the 20th anniversary ball.  Thus we look forward to even more participation this year. 

2) we needed something which fit into a budget of rs.3500-3800/ticket for food. 

3) we wanted a place that gave us either liquor in the meal price, or was going to give us good pricing for drinks overall.  

4) we needed a place that gave us a good selection of food. 

Given these requirements, our teams did a lot of research collecting different price quotations from multiple hotels. Two hotels only give us the space -  Leela and ITC.  For our original date, April 9, 2016, ITC was booked.  We approached Leela and got a price that was well out of our budget.  Thus we approached ITC, and got a price, which fulfilled all of the requirements, but a month later.  Thus as a group of nearly 30 persons, we decided that we will choose ITC on May 7th. 

We look for you all to join us for the PCA on May 7, 2016. 

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Upcoming Events

November 25, 2015 - PCA City Tour - DATE CHANGED DUE TO WEATHER

November 26, 2015 - Thanksgiving Holiday - Thanksgiving Lunch at Leela - Contact Laurinda Porter for reservations

November 28, 2015 - Kids Cooking at Design Hotel 

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Community Event

OWC will be having a Charity Luncheon on December 1, 2015 next month.