Bellevue, Feb 10th, 2008 - 460 participants, 130 children, 15 programs, delicious food, and tremendous enthusiasm among participants and audience marked Seattle Tamil Sangam's Pongal 2008 program. The program offered a variety of cultural events including dances, songs, and presentations by various participants. Deepa Balasubramanian, an organizer of the event said, "in the last few years we used to have 50-60 people in the program, but this year we saw the number grow to 460+ and the tickets were sold one week early. Pongal is an important event for Tamilians and we celebrate it as our Thanksgiving day."

Pongal 2008 Program Highlights

The program also introduced the 2008 Board Members of Seattle Tamil Sangam. This year's board members are Archana B, Arun Kumaravel, Deepa Balasubramanian, Pradeep GanapathyRaj, and Sujatha Rajarajan. In addition to entertainment, the Pongal program also featured a humanitarian effort to help Maddie (HelpMaddie.com), an India born 7 year old girl suffering from cancer, and is in need of a bone marrow donor. Harish, a lead software engineer in Microsoft, drove the initiative to raise awareness and solicit donors in the program.

Children danced for a classical song on Lord Krishna

A group of 6 women performed a Tamil folk dance

For more information on Seattle Tamil Sangam, please visit seattletamilsangam.org.

- A Seattle Desi Network Report