Dear Temple Devotees:

I would like to thank you all for electing me as the President of the Temple. I welcome my fellow executive committee members to join me to face the new challenges. I look forward to working with our board members, executive committee members and all of you towards reaching the next step and hopefully making progress for better functioning of the temple.

As you all know several committees are an integral part of Executive Committee: Religious Committee, Cultural Committee, Food Committee, Publication Committee and, Operation and Maintenance Committee. I would urge everyone to volunteer yourself to serve in one these committees. Please contact the Chairs of these committees or any member of the Executive Committee.

It is my pleasure to update you all on the happenings at our temple. This year will be full of renovations for the Temple. The Temple facility is now more than 20 years old and needs major repairs in order to keep the facility running. Apart from the regular maintenance we are focusing on addressing major items that are long overdue for repair or replacement. Major items are: replacement of HVAC system, replacement of asphalt overlay for the entrance roadway and roof repairs. The anticipated costs for these major repairs will be approximately $220,000. We are also in process of replacing floor tiles in the Temple entrance and at the bathroom hallway.

I am also pleased to announce that from August 2nd, we have started providing Prasad after regularly held Bhajans every Sunday. I would really appreciate it if members of the community would come forward to sponsor at least one Sunday Bhajan Prasad per year. For more information, please visit the Temple website at www.hindutemplehr.org

Our Temple has been growing with so many different religious, cultural and sports activities that are taking place on a regular basis. In addition, each year we conduct special events such as Health camp and Taste of India. This year more than 300 people attended the health camp, which was the highest numbers we have seen since inception of this program. Taste of India has been a very successful event for the past nine years and has provided much needed financial support to our Temple. Thanks to our volunteer physicians and to the dedication of our community members, we are able to have very successful and important events.

As most of you know, the Temple also hosts a variety of activities for all age groups. For our kids, we have the Balakendra program that is always expanding. Our seniors get to benefit from activities planned by the Jeevan Sandhya Mandal. The yoga classes are held on a regular basis with the growing attendance.

The Annual Sports Day is another successful event that has been growing in attendance each year. The 2015 Sports Day has been scheduled for this October
and I encourage all of you to join us to have fun and make this event successful.

The Temple is also a host to many Cricket tournaments under the Hampton Roads Cricket Organization (HRCO) umbrella. The Cricket Club started off with only 8 players in 1996 and has now grown to multiple teams. Cricket club also participates in the Mid-Atlantic Cricket League where they compete against teams from Norfolk, Richmond, Virginia Tech, UVA and Raleigh.

As we all know that without a commitment of time and money, our Temple cannot continue to function properly. With this in mind, we have formed the Indian Heritage Foundation (IHF) that will help raise money for the long-term interests of the Temple. The objective here is to set up an endowment of approximately 2.5 million dollars over the next five years. This endowment can then support the Temple financially for generations to come. In the meantime, the temple board will also have to raise funds for the current operations of the temple for at least next five years. Please donate generously for both current operations of the temple as well as long-term interests of the Temple. Please come forward and commit your resources to both temple as well as IHF.

Finally, I want to thank each and every one of you for your donations and pledges as well as volunteering for the Temple. We are now able to do all much needed improvements to the Temple facility to keep it running smoothly.

Achyut Patel
President