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    NORTH AMERICAN Newsline                                                   MAY 02, 2025     |  The Indian Eye 17

                  GIFT OF LIFE USA HOSTS ITS 10TH GALA 2025

            ers,  and  beneficiaries  and  see  for  turning the venue into a party place!
            themselves the beautiful talents these  Chairman Paresh Parekh and family
            individuals bring to the world.   as well as several volunteers like Shee-
                John Baumann - Living with Par- tal Pathak were instrumental in deco-
            kinson’s for 17 years, a high-powered   rating the venue.
            corporate attorney, author of his pub-  Directors Kalpana Patel, Kam-
            lished  book  “Decide  Success”  and   lesh & Mrudula Parekh, Shashi Malik,
            motivational success speaker, John  Dr. Bhavani Srinivasan, Sheetal and
            Baumann’s life changed forever, and  Jasmin Pathak, Dr. Harshil Parekh,
            he took us on a journey through his  Akash Patel, Bee Sharma, Freya Savla
            life and Parkinson’s disease.     as well as Founders Paresh and Flora
                Nick Padlo - Living with substance  Parekh Welcomed and Thanked Sev-
            Disorder, Nick is an army veteran liv- eral organizational Presidents, Com-
            ing with substance disorder. He is the   munity Leaders, Sponsors, Support-
            CEO of Sophros Recovery, focused   ers well-wishers for their continued
            on helping individuals recover from   support year over year.  Akshat Kaul
            substance use disorders (SUD) and   of Kaul Photography captured mag-
            co-occurring mental health issues. He   nificent event memories.
            inspired the audience with his expe-
            rience dealing with major depressive   The event was graced by sever-
            disorders, generalized anxiety dis-
            orders and tied his experiences with  al community leaders and orga-
            OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)   nizations – Haridas Kotahwala,
            and how these conditions are connect-
            ed and frequently co-occur.       Harish Parikh, Vinod Shah, Asha
                Their differently abled abilities   Shah, Dr. Harshad Bhatt, Rajesh
            have  not  stopped  them  from  achiev-
            ing the impossible. The event started  Patel, Dr. Mahendra and Chha-
            with an in-depth overview of the orga-  ya (Friends of ARCH), Sunil Hali,
            nization’s introduction and program
            details by Dr. Harshil Parekh and a  Indu Jaiswal, Jyoti Gupta, Dr. Jag
            rocking special needs band perfor-  Kalra, Anju Sharma, Lions club
            mance by Down syndrome and au-
            tistic players, followed by recognizing  of Lake Grove, Bhadresh Acha-
            the youth leadership for their dedicat-  rya, Eric Kumar, Devang Patel,
            ed and continued vision and mission
            to serve the community and humanity.  Kaushik Shah, Jagdish Mehta,
                Rocking entertainment included   Harish Thakkar and many more.
            a  mesmerizing  performance  by  Do-
            minican  Republic  authentic  dance   The organization functions with
            performance ion colorful costumes   generous donations from the
            By Dominican Dance Group. The
            highlight of the event was live Dance   community and is operated by
            workshop of several dance forms led   volunteers.
            by Masal Bhangra with all party favors

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