South Asian Circle Of Hopkinton

The SACH Team marched on proudly sporting our newly launched 'I Make A Difference' Tshirts for the first time during this event. During the parade, we showed our support and allyship  with a Pride Ally flag and a Rainbow Peace flag.  It was a great moment in the history of our town to be there and show our support. We walked with several members of the South Asian community, both adults and youth of diverse age groups.   Ruta Upaleker, President of SACH stated the following during her interview to the Hopkinton Freedom Team:  “I have a niece and nephew who came out ten years ago in India and it was tough for them. Seeing this happen in my own town with my kids being part of it has been a truly special experience.”  View blog post from Hopkinton Freedom Team Also... VIEW: Town turns out for inaugural Pride Parade  -  Hopkinton Independent WATCH: Hopkinton LGBTQ+ Pride Parade: June 26, 2021 -  HCAM TV

SACH celebrated and shared the spirit of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr with the Hopkinton community.  All about Ramadan The Spirit of Ramadan is a project to showcase how the holy month of Ramadan is celebrated leading up to the festive day of Eid. During the 4 weeks of Ramadan, SACH published videos submitted by the Muslim community of Greater Boston to showcase family traditions, types of food eaten during Ramadan to prepare for fasting and also to break the fast after sunset.  Week 1 features one of our youngest members of the community reciting the story of Ramadan and a quick recipe of Fruit Chaat (spiced fruit salad) demonstrated by a member as a favorite Iftari item. Week 2 of Ramadan features a popular dish 'Kebab' prepared for Iftar. Also meet a family sitting around the table and sharing their meal for Iftar.  Week 3 of the 'Spirit of Ramadan' features a short clip on different rituals about Ramadan. Week 4 of the 'Spirit of Ramadan' features seniors observ...

With Hopkinton Cultural Council's grant funding, SACH was able to organize and string together a colorful and fun community event for the town of Hopkinton to celebrate Holi, the festival of colors.  Community members of all backgrounds participated.  There were 3 parts to putting this event together in celebrating Holi as one big community:  Holi Cheer 'Goodie bag': SACH prepared color cheer 'goodie bags' with environmental friendly colors for children and adults to play with, stickers, crayons and coloring sheets. Children from the SACH family participated in packing the goodie bags with Covid protocols in mind. Multiple pick-up stations were set up in different parts of the town to make it easy for residents to pick up their goodie bags. Children proudly welcomed residents at their pick up stations and enjoyed interacting with the residents.   Community Photo submissions:  An online gallery of pictures from the community showing how they celebrated Holi....

 The Collective Win - A Poem for India  by Namrata Namrata, a Hopkinton resident has a gift for writing and loves poetry. This is one of her works, written in response to the intense pain and suffering that people of India are going through. She has a powerful message with healing words for the community and beyond who are far away from their families and friends, helplessly watching this tragedy play out. We hope this poem heals you and fills you with Hope!  

Arin, a middle schooler from HPS goes back into history and chats on Zoom with the 3 men Dr King, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to help and guide him. SACH remembers and celebrate Dr Martin Luther King’s legacy on this day in an environment where we’ve reached a crescendo of outcries and protests for social justice and in a sensitive political climate where tensions and emotions are running high. We are left grappling with how to deal with these issues and pondering the impact this might be having on our young ones. Please watch and share this with your fellow community members and school children. A short 5 minute skit with Arin, a middle-schooler from HPS.  View the 5 minute video Copyright © 2019 | South Asian Circle of Hopkinton, Inc. www.southasiancircleofhopkinton.org

Hyppolite Ntigurirwa talks to the community of Hopkinton Hyppolite Ntigurirwa, an International Peace activist and a child survivor of the Rwandan genocide talks to the Hopkinton community with message of Peace and Unity. While his experience is heart breaking, it leaves us inspired and his words fill us with tremendous hope and gratitude!  The video starts with an introductory message from Dawn Miller, Director of Youth and Family Services and Cheryl Perreault, a member of the Hopkinton Freedom Team, who helped bring this speaker to talk to the community of Hopkinton. Thank you for this privilege! Copyright © 2019 | South Asian Circle of Hopkinton, Inc. www.southasiancircleofhopkinton.org

Young Women in STEM: An Interview with Elizabeth Gross A huge congratulations to Elizabeth Gross - Our winner of this year's HHS Scholarship award of $1000 to support young women in STEM. Young Women in STEM is our scholarship program that was launched in 2019 in support of high school girls with a passion for STEM subjects and who want to pursue a career in a STEM related field. We sourced our funding for this program through our Community based Engineering & Design Summer Workshop for elementary school children in 2019. A big thank you to the HHS Counseling team and especially to Constance O'Loughlin who helped us coordinate the application process. What inspired you to get into this field of study (Environmental Engineering)? During Freshman year in Chemistry we did research project to study devices that help people with clean water. Learning about the global struggle for access to basic resources like clean water really sparked my interest in environmental science. I a...