Rotary Calcutta presents community awards
In a glittering event the oldest Rotary club in India, RC Calcutta, D 3291, presented its annual Endowment Awards to over 100 beneficiaries who are either differently-abled people, suffering from generic diseases, economically challenged or NGOs working for the underprivileged as Rotarians cheered with loud applause for every award recipient.
During his introductory remarks, RC Calcutta President Saumen Ray traced the origin of the endowment awards to the creation of a modest fund from a donation of ₹1 lakh from past president Gobinda Lal Sarogi in 1990. Now the corpus has grown to ₹2.01 crore as on 2018 and Ray appealed to all Rotarians to contribute liberally so as to cross the target of ₹2.5 crore by the club’s centennial next year. Former Judge of Calcutta High Court Justice Ronojit Kumar Mitra, the chief guest, elaborated on the screening and selection process of the applicants as the ‘de facto presiding officer’. He donated ₹2 lakh for the creation of a new endowment for visually-impaired students on the occasion.
Techno India Group, present an award to a child.
The club’s Welfare Trust Chairman IPP Nilima Joshi explained the Trust’s vision of ‘making a difference’ by extending ‘hope to the hopeless’ through the endowment schemes. Thanking all donors to this noble cause, she said, “the awards ceremony attempts to preserve the past, honour the present and shape the future for a better tomorrow for our community.”
The awards, along with the certificates, were handed to the beneficiaries by chief guest Mitra and guest of honour, Satyam Roychowdhury, MD, Techno India Group. DG Brojo Gopal Kundu joined the dignitaries and handed over the awards.
“A glint of joy, satisfaction and a sense of achievement were visible on the faces of the awardees who all put up a brave fight for survival and strive for a better life. The aggregate amount of award money disbursed was nearly ₹15 lakh,” said Amit Ghosh, Club Treasurer.
Roychowdhury assured support to the club in its various social projects, and initiated a new endowment named ‘Sister Nivedita Scholarship’ for ₹5 lakh.
In his concluding address, DG Kundu praised the endowment process of the Welfare Trust and noted the flagship event has become a symbol of ‘service to community’.
