Grand success to IHCNJ’s 20th Anniversary Gala on 12/1/18

Indian Health Camp of New Jersey (IHCNJ), a 501© 3, nonprofit organization in New Jersey organized a successful fund-raising Gala for their 20th anniversary on Saturday, December 1, 2018, at Balaji Temple Auditorium in Bridgewater, New Jersey. More than 400 people attended the event to include the local and State Government officials, prominent business entrepreneurs, community leaders, media and other invited guests from various professions and dedicated volunteers. The afternoon started with delicious Indian dinner from Rajbhog Foods and presentations and recognitions followed by two and half hours of non-stop Bollywood Musical Extravaganza with renowned Indian Idol Finalist Omkar Deshpande and Vidya Shivling with their orchestra Panorama Entertainment from India which lasted until 10 p.m. where audience danced on the floor with some new and old melodies.

The program started with prayers from singers followed by welcome speech from Kiran Kothari, one of the trustees of IHCNJ and master of ceremony for the evening. A small video of 20 glorious years of community volunteer service of IHCNJ history was displayed followed by plaque presentations to sponsors. The event sponsor Thomas Coughlin, CEO of BCB Indus American Bank was presented with wonderful plaque by the Guest of Honor Joann Downey, Assemblywoman 11th Legislative District, Ritesh Shah, Executive Committee Member and President Dr. Tushar Patel for their generous support for 20th Anniversary Gala. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Coughlin congratulated IHCNJ for their 20 years of dedicated service and applauded the service provided by IHCNJ to help needy people in our community and also promised to provide his support to non-profit cause in the future. The Senate and General Assembly Joint Legislative Resolution from Assemblywoman Downey was accepted by IHCNJ President Dr. Tushar Patel and Ritesh Shah on behalf of the organization. Assemblywoman Downey expressed her sincere gratitude to IHCNJ for their commitment of community volunteer service for providing free health screenings in New Jersey. She raised concerns for the uninsured and underinsured in New Jersey and how IHCNJ has been making a positive impact in screening and detection of chronic diseases. Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin, NJ’s 18th District, John Bartlett, Passaic County Freeholder, Shanti Narra, Middlesex County Freeholder and Azra Baig, South Brunswick School Board member were among the other elected officials who attended the event and extended their support to IHCNJ.

The plaques were awarded to Gold sponsors Atul Shah of ANS, Dipal Patel of Hexa Buliders – Raajipo, Balaji Temple, Bridgewater, Piyush Patel of Unity4Cause and CareOne, Silver sponsors Pinakin and Kirti Pathak of OHM Group of Companies, Dr. Ashok Patel, Medicor Cardiology and Pragnesh Rathod by the Assemblywoman Downey and other committee members of IHCNJ and the President. Padma Shree Mr. H.R.Shah of TV Asia was awarded with a plaque by Assemblywoman Downey for their event media sponsor and their support for the past two decades to cover IHCNJ activities. Padma Shree Dr. Sudhir & Sudha Parikh were awarded with a plaque from Assemblywoman Downey for their generous support in media promotion for the 20th anniversary gala. Parikh Worldwide media and ITV Gold has been covering the health fair events on a regular basis for past many years. Rupen and Hina Patel of Accurate Diagnostic Labs were recognized for their lab service since its inception in 1998 and Deepti Jani and Nimish Ganatra of Akila, Nitin Gurjar of Tiranga and Kalpesh Shah of Gujarat Darpan were recognized for their continued support to IHCNJ for the print and media coverage for almost two decades.

In his vote of thanks, Dr. Tushar Patel, President expressed his sincere appreciation to all sponsors, supporters, organizations and entities for their continued support to IHCNJ. Dr. Patel expressed his sincere appreciation to all volunteers for their dedicated service over the past 20 years and look forward to their continued support while organization expand their services to provide follow-up consultations and additional testing to people who are detected with significant or life-threatening abnormalities, so organization can keep making a positive impact by giving back to the community.

In 2018, IHCNJ received two exemplary service awards which includes New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Awards in Volunteer Organization Category and NJ BIZ Health Care Heroes Award in Education Hero Category.

The 20th anniversary event was to celebrate the selfless and dedicated services provided by all the volunteers and also aimed at helping the organization move up to the next level of activities. The goal for the next five years is to provide support for follow-up medical consultation and additional diagnostic testing especially for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and other specialists consultations for the people with severe abnormalities detected during the health fairs. These services will significantly reduce the burden on the already strained health care system in this country and improve and save health care costs and financial and emotional burden from the medical complications and debilitating diseases in New Jersey.

If anyone need additional information about IHCNJ, please visit the web site at www. IHCNJ.org or want to contribute toward the noble cause, contact Dr. Tushar Patel at 848-391-0499 or Subhash Shah at 908-391-7746.