CHAPTER NEWS

Michigan Chapter 
Rina Mahapatra, President

MI_OSA (History of Michigan Chapter):

The information is obtained from our long-standing members, Mr. Natabar Khuntia & Mr. Parikshita Nayak who helped us put together this information. Our Prvious office bearers Mrs. Puspa Nayak and Jogesh Panda were instrumental in creating a plaque with names of all previous office bearers. 

Facts about our chapter. 

Around 1983 there were only 6/7 famalies in Michigan. They used to get together informally in each other's houses to celebrate certain important celebrations.

1988- our first president and Secretary were elected.  

   Ladukesh Pattanaik – President 

  Late Hemant Senapati - Secretary/Treasurer 

Both of them were instrumental in bringing oriyas together (new to our area). Mr. Pattanaik left Michigan after a short time. Then Dr. Hemant Senapati took over the responsibility of bringing everybody together. 

Previous office bearers of our chapter – 

1989-2001 
Natabar Khuntia – President, Bailochan Behera (S/T) 
Raj Mishra - President, Ranganath Mishra (S/T) 
Kalyani Mishra - President
Sirish Mishra - President
Hemant Senapati – President, Surendra Mahanti (VP), Sudipta Misra (S/T)
Nitin Doshi – President
Anjali Misra – President, Prabir Mishra (S/T)
Puspa Nayak – President, Jogesh Panda ( S/T)

Current Office Bearers:
Rina Mahapatra – President, Arun Tripathy (S/T)

We elect office bearers in every 2 years. This is the first year we elected officials in a democratic manner. We had an election committee. The names of the candidates were proposed to the committee. As my name was the only one proposed, I got elected. I was asked to elect the secretary/Treasurer and I elected Arun Tripathy to be our S/T. Now we are 40-member family strong. We are a very active community. 

Our Chapter gives our members an opportunity to be a part of our Oriya Family and collectively spread Oriya culture in our community. We celebrate 5 funtions. These are Kumar Purnima, Ganesh Puja, Saraswati Puja, Basanta Utsava and Annual Picnic.

MINNESOTA CHAPTER

OSA Chapter -Minnesota

Founded in 1990
Prsident-Sudipta Tripathy
Vice President:- Manoranjan Mishra

Current Membership - 50

Major Functions - Saraswati Puja, Picnic, Ganesh Puja, Durga Puja, Pakhala Party, Ratha Jatra, Mother's Day

Officer Positions - President, Vice President, ......

Officer Election - Every 2 years (even or odd year), on Saraswati Puja (or any other function) ===== Sudipta Tripathy

NEW JERSEY CHAPTER

OSA NJ celebrated Kumar Purnima on October 18th 2003 at Plainsboro NJ. Around 25 families participated in this function.   The program was as follows:   

The program started with well known Oriya song “Phula Baula Beni” (was published in second issue of OSA newsletter). There was a “Orissa quiz” covering lots of interesting topics on Orissa's current affairs and history. Many participants spoke about the significance of Kumar Purnima festival, shared interesting stories about how they had celebrated this festival in Orissa. We had few exceptional dance and music performances enlightening the audience. Manisha Kintali performed “Mallari” Bharatnatyam dance. Prerana Pradhan performed a Sambalpuri folk dance. She also played violin to the delight of the audience. Supriya Mishra performed an Oriya dance “Rutu Sanghar”. At last we had  delighting Oriya food prepared by the participants followed by a well participated Bingo game. Prizes were distributed to the winners in Orissa Quiz, Bingo & cultural program presentation.   

OSA NJ is planning to celebrate Saraswati Puja in January 2004.

OSA NJ Office Bearer's are:

Nageswar Prusty - President  

Jugal K. Sharma - Vice president

Seshagiri Kintali - Secretary/Tresurer

Sameer Mishra - Cultural

Brajendra Sahu

Basanti Patel - Social

Sujata Kintali

Madhavi Mishra

Sanjukta Prusty

Ozark Chapter

Jeetu Nanda, President

The Ozark Chapter was formed in the Year 1997 if my memory serves me right. We are all getting "Sometimers". However, I do remember the two separate evenings when Surya Misra Babu had proposed the formation of this chapter, once in his home during a get together, and perhaps second time during a party at Nigam Babu's old house. Then whoever were present such as: Surya Babu, Ramahari Babu, myself, Nigam Babu and some others had put their names and other information in a paper to prepare an initial list...With that humble begining...the Ozark Chapter was born and now blossomed into a lot (well not a whole lot) bigger than what we started out with.

The idea of the OSA-Ozark was conceptualized by Dr. Surya Misra, because there were no formal chapters in the St. Louis/MO region since the creation of OSA. Infact the name Ozark was also suggetsed by Surya Babu, and it was of strategic significance because St. Louis/MO and neighbouring regions are part of the Ozark area. The Oriya community in MO, Kansas area was small for many many years, however over the years it has grown upto 17 or so families. The OSA-Ozark chaper enlists members from MO, Kansas and Indiana.

Following the proposal, the chapter formed was under the able leadership of Dr. Nigam Rath who was our two-time President and in fact the very first office bearer, who customarily and impromptu had organized various events which included Ganesh puja, picnics, representation in the national OSA. Dr. Rath with his busy schedule and various other social and political commitments, decided to had over the reins of governance of OSA Ozarks to Dr. Radhakant Padhi. Dr. Radhakanta Padhi, was unanimously elected as the 2nd president of OSA Ozark chapter. This was done only after the the members were satisfied that they would also have a first lady, Mrs Aseema Padhi. Dr. Padhi's contribution to posterity was the creation of osa_ozark yahoogroups. This immediately put all the member in contact with each other, stringing various backgrounds and locations into one community i.e., OSA OZARK. Dr. Padhi also introduced duet singing in parties, which was appreciated by all. Dr. Padhi accepted a position at the esteemed Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and left the area in December 2003. 

Before leaving, Dr. Padhi arranged for nomination for his successor, and in a pseudo election, Jeetu Nanda accepted the position as the new President of the Chapter. And it is too soon to brag about any accomplishments of the new president. Elections in OSA Ozark are held every 2 years. Members to the group are recruited by our star recruiter Anita Panda, who devotes hours of her personal time to graciously help the chapter.

South West Chapter
Niranjan Tripathy, President

Washington D.C. Chapter

We would like to share the news and information shown below, with our OSA members and other friends.

2003 has been a great year for our Washington D.C. chapter. Our chapter's goal is to provide a forum for families from Orissa, friends, and well-wishers to meet and participate so as to preserve and extend their culture, tradition, and heritage.

We successfully celebrated Saraswati Puja, Annual Picnic, Ganesh Puja, Kumar Purnima, and enthusiastically participated in the grand Odissi festival held by IPAP and other organizations.

Two children from our chapter – Pallavi (daughter of Pratap & Puspa Das), and Divya (daughter of Sidhartha & Alpana Das) presented solo performances at the Odissi festival held in the Washington D.C. area last year. The following children from our chapter: Bagmi, Mrinali, Sashwati (daughters of Naresh & Bigyani Das), Shriya (daughter of Santanu & Jhinu Chhotray), Rajashree (daughter of Nrusingha & Bandita Mishra), and Pallavi (daughter of Pratap & Puspa Das) represented our chapter in the opening cultural ceremony at the 2003 OSA National Convention.

In sports, two children from our chapter - Amaresh and Vikash (sons of Devaraj & Urmila Sahu) went to the Junior Olympics and the Junior National Table Tennis Competition which was held at Detroit's Ford Field last summer. The Boys Singles gold medal in Junior Olympics was won by Amaresh Sahu. In the under 12 doubles, Amaresh (and Peter Li) won the gold medal. Amaresh also won the team gold medal with three team mates. In the under 10 boy's team competition, Vikash Sahu won the gold medal with three of his team mates.  In the under 10 doubles, Vikash (and partner Jonathan Mast) won the silver medal.

We will celebrate the same cultural events mentioned above, and conduct an election for new office bearers for 2004-2006. The current office bearers are Alpana Das (President), Munmun Patnaik (Secretary/Treasurer), and Sangeeta Dey (Vice-President). We have Sushanta Mohanty, Prafulla Nayak, and Ajaya Mohanty in our board of advisors. Our dedicated members have been volunteers for many successful programs and events. We would like to thank them all for their support.

Alpana Das, President

For more information please contact President Alpana(Rina) Das (Alpanadas1@msn.com), Vice-President   Sangeeta Dey ( sangeetadey@yahoo.com)  or  Secretary/Treasurer  Munmun Patnaik (bpatnaik0234@cs.com).

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