Media Release
Washington DC, Jul 29: Members of the Bunt community living in Washington DC hosted a splendid BANA 2017 (Bunts Association of North America) at the beautiful Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month.
The BANA 2017 convention, held from July 1 to 4 was a resounding success. The welcome ceremony on the first day of the convention was held at the Moonlight Terrace at Cancun Beach. Group Nikki, Anirudh and Girish Shetty compered the event.
The second day of the event was full of activities like picnic at Barracuda Beach, Zumba, Bingo and others. There was solo performance by Anya, dance by Anuva and Prihana, song by Mala Shetty, stand up comedy by Aashish, and performance by Sneha, Eesha, Elan. Prizes and awards were given by president Shweta Adyantaya, to awardees.
General body meeting was held on the third day of the convention.
Speaking on the occasion, vice-president Rupak Changkakoti said, “In USA there are many regional BANA groups like Mid-Atlantic (DC Washington, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia), Southern 1 (AL, GA, South Carolina), New England (Massachusetts, ME, NH, RI, VT),East Coast ( New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) Midwest, Mountain Region, Northwest ID, Montana, Oregon, Pacific ( AK, California, HI, NPacific , Southwest (Oklahoma, Texas) etc. BANA event is held once in every two years. It was started in 1979-1980 in New York for the first time, by past president Shanker Shetty. This year, it was the 21st BANA, hosted by DC, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia (Mid-Atlantic), who held it as in Cancun, Mexico.”
Shweta Adyanthaya, president of BANA 2017, highlighted the outstanding accomplishments of young Bunts across the country. “Aashna Belenje, daughter of Sweeta and Sukesh Belenje of Saratoga, CA, won the Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) teen poetry contest for 2016. Aditi Shetty, daughter of Dr Sudhir Shetty and Dr Madhavi Naik of Kensington, MD is the winner of the Olin Teague Scholarship for the continuation of an ongoing effort to use impact basins on Mars to glean information about its early geologic history,” she said.
Winners of BANA Academic Awards 2017 were announced on the final day of the convention.
The Lila N Shetty Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Akaanksh Shetty , son of Amitha and Rathnakar Shetty of Houston, TX. He will attend the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso TX next fall.
KM Shetty Memorial SAT award was given to Kiran Shetty, son of Vaishali and Tharun Shetty of Long Island, New York. Kiran will attend Vanderbilt University and plans on majoring in Biology.
The Dr Ajit Hegde Memorial Scholarship recipient Varsha Malli is a biotechnology engineer from Mangaluru. She is pursuing MS in Occupational and Environmental Hygiene at Johns Hopkins University.
Secretary of BANA 2017 Kripa Shetty thanked the outgoing directors Suhana Rai (VA), Govind Shetty (TX), Ravi Shetty (CA) and Dr Sanjay Shetty (MA) for their service.
Aasha Shetty, treasurer, Mahila Vibhag, Bunts Sangha, active members Saroja, Krishni Murli, Bhaskar, Shakuntala Shetty and many others were elated and happy to attend BANA 2017.
Kirti Shetty, Tina Mally, Rasika Shetty, Santosh Shetty, Shefali Hegde, Deesha Adyanthaya, Impana Shetty, Rishab Shetty and Simran Shetty were also part of the executive committee of the the successfully concluded BANA 2017.