The Dream Mile is the flagship event in Vibha's continued efforts to increase awareness about the plight of underprivileged children. It has come a long way since its inception in 1998. It has grown from being a small event attended primarily by volunteers and friends to a permanent fixture on the calendars of runners in the various cities in America. The increasing participation and enthusiasm for this event just goes to show how strongly people feel about the cause of underprivileged children.
This year Vibha has partnered with Marines Toys For Tots Foundation - an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity, which is the fund raising, funding and support organization for the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. Part of the proceeds will be donated to Toys for Tots to help underprivileged children right here at Milwaukee.
http://picasaweb.google.com/soumya.p/TheDreamMile
It was a surreal moment on the morning of August 9th, as volunteers showed up one by one at Veterans Park, Milwaukee on the lake front.
Just the day before, over 20 volunteers gathered in the same location to brainstorm the event day... and here we were at 6AM setting up the area the next day. I don't think that at that very moment, or day before had it hit us that "this is it"...
As the day was rolling in to 7AM with most the volunteers at the venue, everyone was hard at work at their stations... 20+ volunteers showed up ready and eager to help out. It definately was giving everyone a HIGH. Just in a few moments, participants were going to start showing up!!!
Event Beneficiaries showed up and set up their area: MARINES TOYS FOR TOTS; and as well as our past events beneficiaries, we were honored with presences of MPS Homeless Education Program coordinator, Kathy Klein.
As soon as the day began for Vibha Milwaukee volunteers, we were busy setting up banners, setting up food stalls and preparations, setting up registration areas, putting up cones and lines for finish and start areas, Henna and face painting tents and other stations... Clicks of cameras and roars of laughter coming. All volunteers were hard at work and having a good time too and welcoming guests and participants.
7:30AM registrations began. Dj music playing loudly.
Donations of food came from: Einstein bagels, & Panera; We also had Subway, fresh fruits and refreshments for everyone.
Race began at 9:30AM Sharp. And Ended approximately 10:30AM. All runners and walkers finished with in an hour.
Award Ceremony began shortly after the race, with introduction to our event beneficiary MARINES TOYS FOR TOTS; and following that was our past event beneficiary MPS Homeless Education Program.
Considering it was our very first Dream Mile Event, there were over 120 registrations, with 20+ volunteers on event day organizing all this. We were able to raise 10.5K in net revenue.
It was all due to the hard work of three dedicated volunteers that went above and beyond for the last three months in preparing and arranging for this event: Leena Ghosh - Event Plannings, Meenal Atre - Sponsorships and Event Lead, and Mukta Joshi - Event Plannings. Not to mention everyone else that put in their efforts and time as well, but it was all thanks to these three individual that put forth their dedicated time in making sure things ran smoothly. DEFINATELY NOT AN EASY TASK!!! Credits also goes to: Ashish Rastogi - Vibha Action Center Lead, Vishal Rohilla - Volunteer Management. Special thanks to Gargee Atre for designing trifolds and flyers along with Parag with awesome graphics and flyer designs for our event. Thanks to Ujala Rana for managing UWM volunteers and arranging for meeting rooms.
Special thanks to all the sponsors of the event: Little India Groceries and Spices, Zeon Solutions, and Wisdom Info Tech.
Special thanks to Northwestern Mutual for donation grant of $500 to Toy's For Tots.
Special thanks to all the online pledges from family and friends.
THANKS TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS FOR THEIR HARD WORK!
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