VIBHA Atlanta’s 16th Dream Mile Run/Walk has 1700 participants, becomes a Peachtree Road Race qualifier
(Photos: Bytegraph)
Vibha’s annual flagship fundraiser, the Dream Mile, drew more than 1700 participants to the shopping center called The Collection at Forsyth on September 20, 2014—by far the hugest turnout for the Dream Mile in its 16 years. A new feather in the cap this year was USATF Certification of the 5K route, making it a Peachtree Road Race qualifier.
Vibha is a volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to creating brighter futures for underprivileged children. Set up in 1996, the Atlanta chapter was one of the first centers in the US. Atlanta volunteers work towards the goal of providing every child with the opportunity for both education and healthcare.
The metro Atlanta community made it a memorable day when they took the challenge of raising over $170K for the cause, and the zeal and enthusiasm was inspiring. This year Vibha Atlanta also witnessed a phenomenal corporate initiative by the employees of Paramount Software Solutions, a company that has had a long history with Vibha and has been the primary sponsor of Dream Mile for several years. At an employee motivation event on September 14, the company announced that its employees had opened hearts and wallets to a worthy cause and had donated $10,000 to Dream Mile 2014.
The more than 200 volunteers for the event included middle and high school students, part of the youth wing of Vibha called Vibha Youth, and their hard work showed in the smooth organization and execution. Volunteers started their day at 5am to finalize site arrangements for the course set-up, parking, food and drinks, etc. By 7am the place was buzzing with activity on several fronts: registration, children’s activity center, and booths by several partnering organizations.
Mr. Pramod Sajja, President of Paramount Software Solutions and Title Sponsor of the Dream Mile, kicked off the 10K Run. Mrs. Namita Tirath, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Pyramid Consulting did the honors for the 5K Run. Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President of Manhattan Associates kicked off the 5K Walk.
Kishore Krishnan, Coordinator of Dream Mile 2014, said, “We have been elated and encouraged about the growing participation of the community with every year in Georgia. This year’s overwhelming response has been of extreme encouragement for us, the volunteers, who have worked so hard to see this day!”
Chief guest Vir Nanda gave away the prizes to 10K runners and also the awards to volunteers. Anoop Sinha was honored with Sumathi Mahajan Volunteer of the Year Award for his dedication and hard work. Khushboo Sarda was the recipient of the Youth Volunteer of the Year Award and Vikas Movva for his long standing contribution to Vibha. Srinivas Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO of Vensai Technologies, Ram Ganesan, President & CEO of Datum Software, Ramesh Maturu, Co-founder and President of Pyramid Consulting, and Pramod Sajja, President of Paramount Software Solutions also gave prizes to winners. Eddie Capel, CEO of Manhattan Associates, felicitated sponsors Ram Ganesan of Datum Software and Prasanth Kollipara of Bytegraph Productions with plaques for their long-standing contributions.
Winners included Sergio Torres, who finished the 10K Run (Men) with an impressive timing of 39:04 mins, followed by Adam Patten – 39:49 mins. Rysper Sirma won the 10K Run (Women) – 44:59 mins, followed by Niral Solanki – 49:10 mins.
Ravi Narayan won the 5K Run (Men) 22:06 minutes, followed by Mark Morawski – 24.01 mins. Natalia Beinenson won the 5K Run (Women) – 25:55 min, followed by Samhita Mallavarapu – 26:36 mins.
Sanjay Saggere won the 5K Walk (Men), finishing at 37:24 mins, followed by Manikandan Gangadhar – 37:33 min, and Veena Bhat won the 5K Walk (Women) – 39:43 mins, followed by Manjiree Sreekumar – 40:03 min.
Detailed race results with timings are available at http://thedreammile.org/atlanta/atl-event-info/atl-results.
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