Atlanta- Over 100 people- Children, Men and Women- joined the 5 Kilometer/2 Kilometer 'Run or Walk for Fun' porgram organized by Nepalese Association in Southeast America (NASeA) and Nepalese Association of Georgia (NAG) to raise awareness and funds for the Nepalese Cultural Center in Georgia on March 17, 2012.

NASeA & NAG organized 'Run or Walk for Fun' porgram Atlanta, in Georgia on March 17, 2012. Photos courtesy: NASeA

n the men category, Souran Raut finished 5 Kilometers with 19 minutes 38 seconds and among the women, Sabina Parajuli finished first with 30 minutes 25 seconds. Children ran only 2 kilometers and the winner was Amulya Mudbhary in 11 minutes 3 seconds. Second and third places in male category went to Prabhakar Dawadi and Ananta Acharya, to Sijana Sharma and Sabita Kunwar in the women category and to Siddhanta Parajuli and Evan Thapa in the children category.  "But everyone is a Winner" said Sanjeeb Sapkota, the president of NASeA. "Everyone won good health and enjoyment and that's the whole purpose of this event is". He said.

The Run and Walk was held in the Brookrun park in the city of Dunwoody in Georgia, United States. This is the first time in Georgia that such (run and walk) event was organized by Nepali organizations. The enthusiastic runners and walkers gathered early in the park despite a brief drizzle which stopped soon. The sky remained cloudy for most of the morning and that helped people to stay cool and ward off the heat.

The chairperson of the Nepalese Cultural Center Committee Dr. Prahlad Pant reiterated the significance of cultural center for Nepali community in Georgia and that all should provide a concerted effort to have a cultural center by the end of this year.

Pranaya Lama, the president of Nepalese Associaion of Georgia said he was proud that NAG was a co-organizers. Mr. Lama was the time keeper making ensure winners of each category were tracked of their time. The former NASeA president Shaubhagya Shrestha and Raja Ghale gave out awards to the winners. Mr. Ghale also did the count down to begin the race. Ram Dongol manned the boothed at one end of the race and handed out cards to the runners who would make to that end. Dhana Timilsina was at the other end handing out the card, The runners had to make two laps to complete 5 Kilometer.

American Family Insurance company, the agency of Ashraf Thorani one of the sponsors of the event provide raffle prizes and goodies for children. Other sponsors of the event were UNI Financial International, Moon Indian Cuisine, Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine, Haveli Indian Restaurant, Saroj Accounting and Tax Inc., American Family Insurance Insurance Jabar Dozier Agency, Ed Voyles Kia, Tika R Gurung New York.

Registered nurses Saru Neupane and Sumita Harden were stand by at the run with first aid equipment should any injury happen, but fortunately, noone sustain any injury during the run event.

The success of this event has energized the Nepali community and left us wanting to do more of such event" said NASeA President Sapkota.

"The success of the event was due to hard work of many volunteers for several weeks including Dipendra Thapa, Aastha Ghimire, Dhana Timilsina, Ram Dongol, Paras Ghimire and many others. We will soon announce other 5K/2K events". He further said.

-Nepalese Association in Southeast America (NASeA)

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