Youth Leadership Workshop in Dallas-Fortworth

Nov 23, 2013: The weather was gloomy, cold and shivering, perfect to cuddle in bed and spend the holiday weekend, but it was not the case for our enthusiastic 35 some families, who braved the bad road conditions to be bright and early to the Youth Leadership workshop, held at Harrington Public library, Plano, conducted by Mr. Ramanujam, fondly called Ram, who had come from India.

The workshop saw participants from last year who couldn’t wait to get started were thrilled to be there, while the new participants seemed enthusiastic and excited to see what was in store for them. Generally, parents dread the teenage years of their children, while it’s impossible to get even a nod from them, let alone make them open their mouths as well as hearts. Ram, here, on the contrary, knew exactly how to make the wandering minds focus and made them feel comfortable and participate. The participants readily took part in many discussions and expressed their thoughts and ideas. When young minds are inspired abundantly, one can expect wonders, which was witnessed by a panel of experts who were there to judge the impromptu skits, role-playing performed by the participants. Volunteers Mrs. Aparna, Mrs. Kamakshi and Mr. Sankar from the corporate world were pleasantly surprised to see the tremendous potential displayed by the young leaders in making.

Ram emphasized on principles that define a leader, like Priority Versus Importance, effective communication and the ability to follow O(Observation), F (Feelings), N (Needs), R (Request) in day to day life to bring the inner leader in each child.

Though the participants were busy enriching their minds, their growing bodies needed nourishment too; and the volunteers served the participants with lunch, snacks, and beverages after which the participants continued to absorb the lessons which are going to be with them for life and make them not only successful leaders but fine human beings.

‘Happiness at Work and Harmony in Communication’ — Workshop at Microsoft Corporation, Redmond WA

On Nov 18th 2013, Mr.M.K.Ramanujam conducted a workshop for the Visual C++ team at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. He covered the topics of happiness at work and harmony in communication to achieve work life balance. This workshop was organized to help boost employee morale at Microsoft for the Visual C++ team. The workshop was three hours long with about 18 participants. The participants enjoyed the various hands on training activities along with the lecture content thoroughly.  Participants felt like they had a clear and concrete picture of how to take work-life balance into their own hands and execute on it.

Free Health Screenings and 100 Free Flu Shots Given Away at Life & Soul Health Fair 2013

On the beautiful clear morning of Nov 9, 2013, Love to Share Foundation America (LTSFA) and Global Organization for Divinity’s third annual health fair – Life and Soul 2013 – was kicked off by the Honorable Mayors Delores Martin of Manvel and Tom Reid of Pearland, and Sheriff Deputies Ms. Dodd and Ms. Myriam.  State Representative Ed Thompson also visited the fair later and was overwhelmed to see the efforts of volunteers and vendors alike and spent a long time speaking with volunteers and the vendors encouraging them for more such fellowships in the future.

Close to 200 people attended this year’s free health fair. Flu shots sponsored by Texas Medical Association (Be Wise – Immunizesm) were administered to 100 people and 100 free helmets were given away as part of the ‘Hard Hats for Little Heads’ program. Free screenings for obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis, airway disease, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, glaucoma, refractory errors and heart disease were conducted.

This year’s health fair was marked by active participation of physicians/specialists – Dr. Hema Salvady (Rheumatologist), Dr. Jyoti Rao (Gastroenterologist), Dr. Deepa Vasudevan (faculty at UT Houston), Dr. Rekha Neela, Dr. Radha Arunkumar (faculty at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center), Dr. Rajan Kadakia (Cardiologist with South East Cardiology), Dr. Ghanshyam Patel (Ophthalmologist) and Physician and students from Texas Eye Institute. Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri, internist, had a great attendance during her diabetes class and one of the cardiologists, Dr. Ramesh Patel from Universal Heart, gave a very informative class on heart health to the benefit of the participants.

Apart from individual donations, local businesses that were key sponsors for the event included Walgreens, HEB Plus pharmacy (Shadow Creek), Signature Kroger pharmacy (Shadow Creek), Manvel Pharmacy, Rite of Passage, Total Body Works, First Houston Home Health, Sleep Center at Kirby, Prestigious Rentals, The Burger Barn (Manvel), Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Shipley Donuts (Silverlake CR 90), Domino’s (Silverlake CR 90), Olive Garden and Touch of Asia Grocers.

Over 30 volunteers dedicated their heart and soul to the event including Global Organization for Divinity volunteers, PISD and HISD junior high/high school students.

“A heartfelt thanks to each and every one for working so sincerely as one team to serve the community, which is so dear to LTSFA,” said Dr. Lekshmi Nair of Manvel, who spearheaded Life and Soul this year as well.

That Life and Soul 2013 was well received by the community was quite clear from the survey responses received at the end of the event. As the word spreads about its activities, LTSFA looks forward to reaching out to more and more community members with similar such future events. The next Life and Soul Health Fair will be held on November 8, 2014.

Apart from this annual free health fair, LTSFA’s social initiatives across the United States include blood and bone marrow drives, food and clothing drives for the homeless, environmental drives, educational supply drives/donations for special-need schools, medical supply donations to deserving nonprofit organizations in the field and Leadership workshops for youth as well as for employees of professional organizations and businesses.

The next upcoming events of LTSFA are a Youth Leadership workshop for teens in Dallas on November 23, 2013 and in Houston (Manvel) on Dec 21, 2013 by renowned speaker M.K. Ramanujam.

For more information about the organization and its events, contact LTSFA at 281-402-6585 or contact@lovetosharefoundation.org.

Youth Leadership Workshop at Richmond, VA

Sunday Oct 13th – 10 am – 3pm

Love to Share Foundation of America invited Mr. MK Ramanujam (Ram) to conduct the Youth Leadership Workshop for teenagers in the Virginia. 29 young aspirants attended the workshop from 10 am to 3 pm on Sunday, Oct 13th and gained a useful life skill to empower them to stand out amongst the rest of the crowd.

Mr. Ram’s unique way of connecting with the young minds resonated beautifully with the teens in attendance. The morning started off with some introductions, followed by the first module that dealt with principles and precepts of Leadership, the first of which was all about ‘emptying the cup’, a.k.a keeping an open mind and listening. The mirror principle and many other tips and anecdotes from Mr. Ram’s wide experience made it for a very enjoyable session. 6 teams then performed a wonderful debate on “Influence vs. Respect vs. Strictness” as the key qualities of a good leader. A young high school senior was a lone candidate on the Strictness, debated and gained 8 followers out which includes his opponent debater from Influence team. Ram lauded this student on his efforts of convincing the group as well as his opponent and clearly showed this act is actually called influencing.

The second session was on “Acceptance”, and “Responsibility”, that opened the bright young minds to a totally new way of dealing with problem solving. That was followed by a group activity that the children came up with to share their learning.

The post lunch session was on Time Management that particularly focused on how leaders think and manage their valuable time to best optimize their workload.

Finally, the young leaders each took turns to share their pledge for changes they’d put forth and practice in the coming weeks to better their lives and become wonderful leaders of the next generation.

Harmony in Communcation Worskshop in CA Bay Area

Mr.M.K.Ramanujam conducted a workshop for adults on “Harmony in Communication” on Sunday October 6th 2013 at the Tully Community Room in San Jose. 14 people attended the workshop and the workshop was very well received by everyone.

The theme of the workshop was on Harmony in Communication. Mr. M.K. Ramanujam began the workshop with a beautiful explanation on harmony and its existence in nature. He gave various examples of interplay of contrasting characteristics and their harmonious existence.

The main theme centered on harmony in relationships. Mr. Ramanujam explained about four filters that one has to apply in order to express oneself in a relationship. They are observe, feel, need, request shortly called O,F,N,R. By applying these filters, it is possible to get one’s needs met while respecting others. Generally discord in communication arises due to the following reasons: moral judgment of others actions, making comparisons, denial of responsibility and communicating desires as demands. Mr. Ramanujam went about explaining in detail about each of these elements which cause discord during communication and how they can be handled.

Making an observation not an evaluation, Sensing the feeling and distinguish it from thoughts, identifying the need and making a positive request – these were dealt in detail.

Mr. Ramanujam also discussed briefly about anger management using the above four filters. An interesting perspective he put forth was that anger is not bad; it is not to be suppressed.

The workshop involved many activities and examples to understand the four filters and how to apply them in personal as well as professional relationships. Overall, it was 5 hours well spent in understanding how to communicate one’s needs effectively without hurting others.

Dallas Blood Drive in March 2013

Father’s Day- Sunday, June 17, 2012 started with another Nama and Mass Prayer session for Suchinder Kalyan at the DFW Hindu Temple, Ekta Mandir in Irving, TX. Dallas Love to Share Foundation chapter organized yet another ‘Blood Drive’ with 2 mobile units from Carter Blood Care in the temple premises. Many members and Temple members volunteered for this event, and were able to acquire 50 blood donations from devotees and volunteers, in a short span of time.

Dallas – Inner Transformation Workshop

‘The Joy of Sharing’, Inner Transformation & Leadership Workshop, was held at the William Cozby Library at Coppell, TX, the first of its kind conducted by Mr. MK Ramanujam (Ram) for the residents of the Dallas Forthworth Metroplex area. The Workshop began around 10:30 am and was attended by nearly 30 people, from different walks of life but with one main theme for the day, inner transformation.

The Workshop was very informative, practical and unbiased and could be related by one and all that were present there. Mr. Ram provided several invaluable lessons and pointers for self-improvement. It was an interactive and fun-filled session that was well received by the attendees. They also participated enthusiastically in role playing and skit performances to demonstrate the ideals and re-emphasize the message conveyed to them.

Mr Ram, being the spiritual and insightful instructor he is, communicated effortlessly the significance of inner excellence, gratitude and compassion using mind power. Those who were fortunate to attend this one of a kind workshop did leave as a transformed person for the betterment of themselves, their families and those around them.

Bay Area, CA Inner Transformation Workshop

Love to Share Foundation conducted an Inner Transformation  Workshop for adults on Saturday, December 8th 2012 at the Evergreen Community Room in San Jose, California from 10am – 2pm. Mr.Ramanujam conducted this workshop.  32 people from different walks of life attended this valuable workshop.    The workshop was divided into three sessions- Change vs. Transformation, Acceptance, and Understanding our true inner nature of Happiness. Each session concluded with a group activity to demonstrate what they learnt  in each session.  The session was totally interactive and the workshop gave all the attendees a new perspective to life. The workshop was truly enjoyed by all  and the valuable lessons from the workshop did transform everyone and prepared them to face any challenges in life.

Inner Transformation Workshop at Pearland Senior Center

Mr. M. K. Ramanujam conducted an Inner Transformation and Happiness workshop at the Melvin Knapp Senior Center in Pearland, TX (Houston area) on Dec 4th, 2012. The 1.5 hour session was attended by about 25 members of the center who were all from different cultures and backgrounds.

During the talk, Mr. Ramanujam primarily dealt with “acceptance” as a means of transforming and bringing happiness into our lives. Many attendees also shared their personal experiences during the session.

All who attended were very appreciative of the insights revealed during the session and admitted that this was going to make a huge difference in their lives.

Dallas Youth Leadership Workshop – Dec 1st 2012

Youth workshop conducted by Mr. Ramanujam at Harrington Library Hall, Plano,TX on Dec 1st 2012 commenced at 10.30 am. The workshop was received with great enthusiasm as word of Mr.Ramanujan spread through many spiritual discourses and Adult workshops alike. Parents who witnessed Mr.Ramanujam’s life transforming speeches, made last minute registration so that their children could bequeath the knowledge. The library Hall was filled with 45 young adults who were ranging from 12- 15 years, the prime age which determines our future character and was going to be shaped by one of the great Leader. Children assembled promptly before 10.30AM, thanks to the most involved parents and the workshop started, children were little hesitant in the beginning as they didn’t know what to expect. As our beloved Mr. Ramanujam started laying out the topics they were going to discuss and the activities that they had planned children slowly started settling down. Within short span of time our future leaders proved themselves, actively participating in debates, role-playing, enacting little skits and performances. Their knowledge on current affairs, history and out of the box ideas made the workshop very interactive. When we are having this much fun, time just flies, it was time for lunch, some children didn’t want a break they wanted more. Children were served with warm Pizza, chips and juice and they were kind enough to assemble for a photo-shoot, even volunteers didn’t miss this great opportunity to get in the same shot as these young promising leaders and beloved Mr.Ramanujam. During the course of the discussions, Mr.Ramanujam tested their level of understanding and participation, and the children surpassed even his expectations. The workshop came to an end and the children received a wealth of knowledge that’s going to transform their lives along with a certificate that will remind them of this event.

Houston Inner Transformation workshop for adults

Manvel, TX Nov 18th 2012

Love to Share Foundation  invited Mr. Ramanujam (Ram) to conduct a workshop for adults on the topic of Happiness and Inner Transformation. 17 participants were the recipients of Mr. Ram’s experience and wisdom on the deep topic of Inner Transformation.

The 6 hr workshop was dealt in 3 modules –  Change vs. Transformation, Acceptance, and Understanding our true inner nature of Happiness. The modules were set up in the format of lecture followed by Q & A.

Participants pledged to take valuable lessons from this workshop and begin implementing the precepts in handling their daily lives, challenges in home and work, parenting  etc.

Houston Chapter of Love to Share Foundation  expresses its immense gratitude to Mr. Ramanujam for this workshop.

Houston Youth Leadership Workshop

Manvel, TX Nov 17th 2012

Love to Share Foundation  invited Mr. MK Ramanujam (Ram) to conduct the Youth Leadership Workshop for teenagers in the Houston area. 33 young aspirants attended the workshop from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, Nov 17th and gained immensely useful life skills to empower them to stand out amongst the rest of the crowd.

Mr. Ram’s unique way of connecting with the young minds resonated beautifully with the teens in attendance. The morning started off with some introductions, followed by the first module that dealt with principles and precepts of Leadership, the first of which was all about ’emptying the cup’, a.k.a keeping an open mind and listening. The mirror principle and many other tips and anecdotes from Mr. Ram’s wide experience made it for a very enjoyable session. 7 teams then performed a wonderful debate on “Influence vs. Respect” as the key quality of a good leader.

The second session was on “Acceptance”, and “Responsibility”, that opened the bright young minds to a totally new way of dealing with problem solving. That was followed by a group activity/impromptu skit and poems that the children came up with to share their learning.

The team then broke for lunch with Burritos, Pizza and Smoothies sponsored by local establishments.

The post lunch session was on Time Management that particularly focused on how leaders think and manage their valuable time to best optimize their workload.

Finally, the young leaders each took turns to share their pledge for changes they’d put forth and practice in the coming weeks to better their lives and become wonderful leaders of the next generation.

The Houston Chapter of Love to Share Foundation  expresses its immense gratitude to Mr. M.K. Ramanujam for this workshop.

Happiness at Work at Intel, Hudson, MA

‘Beyond the Cube’ is a session for employees Intel Corporation that happens twice a year. This is a program series that happens across the company featuring world-class outside speakers inside Intel invited for the sake of employees to explore on various topics and dimensions.

Ram from Joy of Sharing was the special invited speaker at the Intel campus at Hudson, MA on Nov 13, 2012 and he spoke on Happiness at Work.
At the outset, he clarified to the participants that this was not about being happy at the workplace, but it was about how happiness was working all through within us! This brought smiles on the faces of the 70+ employees gathered for the talk. During the talk, Ram through various illustrations from his own personal experiences showed how there are things in the world that encourage us to be happy and how happiness is a choice for one and all.

The 60-minute talk got many to introspect and led to interesting discussions. Many employees could relate to the examples cited by Ram and felt thankful for having signed up for the session.

Chicago Youth Leadership Workshop

On Nov 10th 2012, Love to Share Foundation  organized a Youth leadership Workshop for kids aged 12-19  in the Chicago land area.  The Workshop was conducted by Mr. Ramanujam at the Naperville Public Library. 15 young leadership aspirants attended the program.

The six hour workshop focused on Responsibility, Acceptance, Priority Management, Openness and Time Management concepts for young leaders.  Mr Ramanujam covered the concepts across 4 interactive sessions.  The kids were divided into 4 groups.  At the end of every session each group had to perform an activity related to the concept covered in the session.  A panel of 3 members graded the performance of each group.  At the conclusion of the Workshop the best group was identified and rewarded.

Each participant beautifully summarized on their learnings from the workshop. They left home with a promise to work on two aspects which would take them towards the goal of becoming a successful leader.

Life & Soul Health Fair 2012 – Grand Success!

Manvel, TX, November 5 2012 – The second annual “Life and Soul” Health Fair, conducted by Love to Share Foundation provided free health screenings to well over a hundred participants on Saturday, Nov 3rd at New Life Plaza located in Manvel, TX.

Organized in a spirit of service to the community, the health fair brought together several like-minded health service organizations and attracted attendees from several cities in the Greater Houston area including Houston, Manvel, Pearland, Alvin, the Brazosport area, Sugar Land, and even as far as The Woodlands.

Honorable Mayor Delores Martin of Manvel city kicked off the event with a few touching words that expressed her gratitude to the organizers. Several health professionals were on hand to perform numerous tests including Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure and Hemoglobin A1C (sponsored by HEB Plus), Complete Lipid Panel (Kroger Super Store), Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure (My Nurse Home Care), Bone Density (Walgreens), Pulmonary Function, Stroke and Peripheral Arterial Disease Screening (Alvin Community College), Vision screening (Dr. Seema Nanda and Texas Eye Institute), Diabetes Education (Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri and a Certified Diabetes Educator Ms. Heather Kleindez of Sanofi Aventis).

Physicians who were available onsite for consultation included Gastroenterologists Dr. Jyoti Rao and Dr. Satish Iduru, Hematologist and Oncologist Dr. Dhatri Kodali, Rheumatologist Dr. Hema Salvady, Infectious Disease specialist Dr. Sweeya Ramireddy, an Anesthesiologist Dr. Shakuntala Shetty, and Family Practitioner Dr. Lekshmi Nair.

Apart from the health screenings, St. Luke’s Hospital conducted a blood donation drive,  free State-sponsored flu shots were given away to kids without insurance, free helmets sponsored by Texas Medical Association were also given away to kids, free Zumba fitness tryouts were provided by Ms. Aracelli Martinez and her team.

Michelle Pesina of Sai Primary Care was named the “Life and Soul Champion” volunteer of the event. Several student volunteers were also available to help with running the event from Health Occupation Students of America group of Milby High School, DeBakey High School, Manvel High School and University of Houston. Several local businesses and restaurants including Shipley’s Donuts, Johnny Carino’s and Pearland MRI sponsored breakfast and lunch for all the volunteers, vendors and physicians, while Sam’s Club, HEB and Kroger sponsored water, juice and snacks for the participants.

Other event sponsors included Joseph and Janis Schneider, Amed Home Health, Geografx, Sleep Center of Kirby, Best Coupons and Spine and OsteoArthritis Center of Texas. Participants also won door prizes for free X-rays, free 30-day passes to the 24 hour Fitness Center, dinner and appetizer coupons, etc. during lucky draws that took place every hour.

Next year’s “Life and Soul” Health Fair will be held around the same time of the year, during October-November, 2013.

Happiness @ Work at Best Buy, Minneapolis, MN

Mr. Ram did a corporate workshop on “Happiness at Work” at Best Buy in Minneapolis, MN on Monday, Oct 29, 2012. The concept of happiness was dealt in detail and it was conveyed with day-to-day real-life examples how happiness is a choice. Around 40 professionals attended the 90 minute session.

Youth Leadership Workshop at Nashua, New Hampshire

22 bright faces between the ages 12-19 participated in the Youth Leadership Workshop organized by Love to Share Foundation at Aradhana-NH Center for Heritage and Arts at Nashua New Hampshire.

The three hour interactive workshop was designed to promote the values of leadership, acceptance and time management in young adults. Special focus was given to managing stress and maximizing the potential to succeed in examination.

The uniqueness of the workshop was that it was aimed at rediscovering the individual by self-introspection and bringing out the inner latent potential through stories, analogies paradigms and situations.

The young adults felt energized and empowered after the 3-hour workshop and vowed to put to practice values and methodologies for acceptance, time and stress management discussed in the workshop.

Mrs. Sandhya Sridhar was the key sponsor. Mr. Ravi Sivakumaran and Mrs. Kalpana Ravi organized the program and Mr. Raghav Pattabhiraman, Mrs. Amolya Prabhala, Mrs. Deepa Mangalat, Mrs. Veena Venkatesh, Mr. Srinivasan and others facilitated the workshop.

Transformation Leadership Workshop by Mr. M.K. Ramanujam

On October 11th 2012, Mr. M.K. Ramanujam conducted a Transformational Leadership workshop for corporate level participants from various organizations. The event was conducted at the Gayton Library, Tuckahoe, Virginia. Mr. Ram beautifully explained the difference between a leader and a manager, what it takes to be a leader, what a leader does differently than a manager, how a leader sets up paths, lives by that concept and guides others to follow. Finally Mr. Ram explained how someone can transform his/her thoughts to become a successful leader by focusing on ‘What can we do now’ policy. The lecture was very well received by the attendees. The session was followed by a question & answer session and the 30 people who attended went out with a sense of satisfaction and drive towards transforming themselves, to make their workplaces better places to work.

Inner Transformation workshop for 50 school principals

A unique workshop was organized by Trivandrum Sahodaya complex where the India chapter of the Organization administered a workshop on Happiness and Inner transformation in Education for Principals of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) schools in the Trivandrum area. 50 Principals and administrators participated in this workshop initiated by Ms Jeyalakshmi of Trivandrum. Mr Fredrick Leon , Secretary of the Trivandrum Sahodaya complex welcomed the audience, Ms Jeyalakshmi introduced the speaker – M.K.Ramanujam and the session was for 4 hours.

The participants coming from various traditions appreciated the Universal message of Inner transformation and wanted a longer session in January 2013.

2011 Life and Soul Health Fair in Houston

Life and Soul Health Fair was conducted in the Houston Namadwaar on 13th of August 2011 and it received an overwhelming response from the community. Honorable Mayors, Ms. Delores Martin from Manvel and Mr. Tom Reid from Pearland were both present to kick off the event. Another notable personality present for the kick off was a Senior and renowned physician of Houston, Dr Venugopal Menon. Dr. Menon has played a key role in the Health Fairs conducted by Meenakshi Temple Society for the past several years. By the time the Mayors had arrived quite a few people had already signed up for testing. Both the Mayors were very appreciative of the efforts to serve the community. A brief “opening” ceremony was held outside in the Namadwaar grounds where a large tent had been set up. Dr Hema Salvady and Dr Seema Nanda welcomed the Mayors and Ms. Nisha Giri explained the essence of ‘Life and Soul’ to all those present. Ramaswamiji expressed his gratitude on to the community members, the Fair sponsors and vendors. Their active participation made this a reality. Honorable Mayor Delores Martin handed over “Thank You” mementos to each sponsor present. The two mayors were then taken on a tour of Namadwaar house, where all the screenings were being conducted. The sponsors conducting the screenings were all present inside the house. The Mayors walked up to each station, met the teams who were conducting the screenings and also presented them with Thank You mementos. Thank you certificates were given to the participating physicians – Dr. Bommanna – Allergy specialist, Dr. Hema Salvady – Rheumatologist, Dr. Jyothi Rao – Gastroenterologist, Dr. Ghanshyam Patel – Eye specialist and Dr. Seema Nanda – Eye Specialist.

The registration booth was manned by our volunteers and volunteers from a local school. These volunteers gave each family, bags and also entered them for Raffle prizes which were given away every hour. These bags were filled with educational materials and ‘goodies’ like pens, notepads, coupons etc.

The health screenings had already begun earlier around 8:15 AM and continued without a break until 12:30-1 PM. All the screenings were offered completely free of charge to everyone. The screenings offered were Blood Sugar – sponsored By Liberty Medical, a diabetes supply company; Cholesterol – Kroger Pharmacy; Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure – My Nurse Home Care; Vision screening – Dr Ghanshyam Patel, Dr. Seema Nanda and students from University of Houston EKG (electrocardiogram) – Sai Primary Care, Lung Function test & Pulse Oximetry – Alvin Community College, Bone Density – Walgreens Pharmacy, Carotid Doppler & ABI – Alvin Community College. The participants could also sign up for a Mammogram, which would be done at a later date in a mobile clinic in the neighboring area — by the ‘The Rose’ of Houston. There were free (bicycle) helmet giveaways (primarily for children) sponsored by Texas Medical Association. Approximately 80 free helmets were given away by volunteers.

Over 175 people from varied cultural backgrounds turned up for the fair. The participants were from Brazoria, Harris and Fort Bend counties covering at least six towns of Manvel, Pearland, Stafford, Alvin, Pasadena and Friendswood. About 120 people had called and registered and there were also several walk-in registrants.

Free vegetarian mediterranean food sampling by a local restaurant – ‘The Barbed Rose’, attracted a large crowd. Snacks, fruits and water were available for free for all the participants. These were sponsored by Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company and by the Sleep Center of Kirby. Other sponsors were Randalls Food store and Kroger pharmacy.

Survey forms were handed over to participants after they completed their testing. The overall response was positive. A few issues which we faced were the hot weather, long waiting times and long lines in front of some stations with tests that took approx 10-15 min each and because of which, some people decided to leave. About 140 people received the tests they needed. Some of the people who could not be tested were given information about how they could contact the vendor and still qualify for free testing!

The entire event was patrolled constantly by Brazoria County police officers and monitored by the local Emergency Medical Corp to avert any emergency situation if there was a need.

Several local organizations and volunteers had the opportunity of participating and serving the community.

Majority of the patients were very grateful for this health fair and all the health screenings. They expressed that they would refer Life and Soul Fair to their friends and family and they were also likely to participate in the Fair the next time. The positive things were that it was entirely free of cost for everyone, special screenings offered – like the Carotid Doppler, Lung Function and Ankle Brachial Index are not commonly offered in other such events and the participants had their results in their hands when they walked out the door!