Candidates Contesting for Board of Trustees  (3 Vacant Positions)

Prasanna Ayer

I am Prasanna Ayer and I have been a regular temple volunteer for almost 25 years. I have served in various committees, helping in temple operations and kitchen every week, and organizing every major event at the temple. I played an instrumental role in Maha Kumbhabhishekam held in May 2022, serving as General Secretary for the event to make it a grand

success by working closely with hundreds of temple volunteers, various committees, coordinating all the arrangements, and ensuring the event was held in a seamless manner. The volunteers worked tirelessly for many months, and it was a great pleasure to see the entire community come together for the wonderful event.

I have served in the Temple Board once before, during one of the most consequential periods when the temple management team worked together to inaugurate the Temple community center and classrooms, completed temple land transfer back and made the temple debt free. All of this happened while we navigated through the COVID pandemic, managed the temple and kitchen operations without much interruption and served the needs of our devotees and community. I have a sincere appreciation of all those who made this possible.

If given an opportunity to serve again, I would focus even more on the engagement and education of the next generation, offer them more opportunities to participate in temple activities, volunteering, cultural and language programs, to develop sense of belonging with temple and community. I represent our temple in the Council of Hindu Temples of North America (CHTNA), and I would continue collaborating with other large temples for best practices in temple management and keeping our place of worship secure. I would also work with the new Board to develop new funding mechanisms like endowments for long term benefit of temple and our children.

I have wonderful relationships with temple devotees, volunteers, priests, and other staff members. I interact with everyone on a regular basis and have an understanding and appreciation of what they do every day. I believe in humble, selfless service and I look forward to many more years of service to the temple.

Vijay Kumar Buddi

I, Vijay Kumar Buddi, a Chartered Accountant by education, am a successful entrepreneur and technologist. Professional success apart, I have always been involved in philanthropic activities by actively supporting any good cause and my mind always goes for the poor and needy and I always look into the positives of person to make it work and I am YES attitude person, and I am easily approachable. I have been part of this community and devotee of the Hindu Temple of St. Louis since 2006. I am always donor and I have been actively involved fund raising drive in 2018, and I had an opportunity to serve last two years in Maha Kumbhabhishekam preparation and execution. After working closely with many friends and associates in the event and their hard work and dedication, I started to feel it is the time to contribute and serve the community.

Devotees, Please support my nomination for Board of Trustee position. I really appreciate your time and attention

Surendranadh Byrapuneni

My Name is Surendranadh Byrapuneni, living in St.louis for 21  years with the support of my wife Umarajewari and children  Saketh and Sahasra. We have been working in several  organizations in our community for past several years. Me and my  wife have been volunteering in the temple events and in the kitchen since 2018. We made several contributions to the Indian and American communities of St.Louis. Appreciate your support and help.

Thanks
Suren

 

 

Smita Parikh 

 

I have associated with Hindu Temple of St. Louis since late 90s. My service has been in the form of being a Devote, and serving in the administration in various positions from 2014 thru 2019 I was instrumental in getting Maharudrum organized in the year 2019which was successful due to Devotees. My latest service to the temple was Mahakumbhabhishekam that took place in May 2022. As you are all aware, it was highly successful, because lot of contribution by some the people who are in the administration and all other devotees. My plan is to arrange big event like Maharudrum which will bring lots of Devotees to the Temple. Myself and my husband have supported this temple in various ways.

 

Candidates Contesting for Executive Committee 
(3 Vacant Positions)

 

Dhanya Ayer

My name is Dhanya Ayer. I have been an active temple volunteer since 2016. I started by teaching shlokas to elementary age kids in the Hindu Temple Youth group. Then I began teaching Bhagavad Gita along with the meaning to the youth group students and had them participate in various annual temple events like Gita Jayanthi and Bhagavad Gita Yagnam/Homam. Every year more students have been enrolling to learn Bhagavad Gita as part of the Hindu Temple Youth Group program. I am currently teaching the high school students in the youth group and classes are held every weekend.

I have also been part of the cultural committee for many years. Working in youth and cultural committees helped me in ringing youth group students to participate in various temple events. I actively helped in organizing several cultural programs which led me to chairing the Cultural Committee for the Maha Kumbhabhishekam 2022 event. By collaborating and coordinating with other volunteers and committee members, I successfully held several cultural programs and gave opportunities to approximately 500 students to participate in the cultural activities during all 5 days of Maha Kumbhabhishekam. I organized the Ratha Yathra event for Srinivasa Kalyanam as part of Maha Kumbhabhishekam which received plenty of positive feedback.

If given an opportunity, I will continue working on bringing in more youth group students to participate in the cultural and Pooja events of our temple. I will also work towards educating our youth about our Hindu traditions to ensure that the future of our temple is in safe hands. Based on the relationship and credibility established with Music and Dance gurus of St. Louis during Maha Kumbhabhishekam, I will be able to promote more participation of artists and performers in temple events.

Balanand Pinni

a) Contributed as Board of Trustee for past 4 years.
b) Contributed as Education Chair.
c) Contributed as Interfaith Partnership on the Cabinet.
d) Contributed as Lead for Mahakumbha Abhishekam Committee.
e) Contributed as Fund Raiser for events at the temple.
f) Contributed as member of Spiritual Committee.
g) Contributed as member of Food Committee.
h) Contributed as by laws committee.
i) Had defined structure plans for Youth to Hindu education.

Looking forward to expanding my contribution and involve more youth and our future children in various capacities at Hindu temple of Saint Louis which will lead the path to development of the future generations. Participate in leadership development and serve on committees and actively engage in temple activities. To perform audit functions across various assets and be transparent with the temple members from time to time to ensure that data is reliable and accurate. Ensure proper security measures are built inside and outside the temple and privacy, compliance, and overall management of the internal and external data flows for proper functioning of the temple. Encourage people participation in various events at the temple and also work with external agencies for the benefit of the temple growth and development of the temple.

Kishore Yarlagadda  

My name is ‘Kishore Yarlagadda’, associated with Hindu temple of Saint Louis since 2005. I have volunteered and contributed towards many milestone events such as two Kumbhabhisekams, the temple expansion, and major festival events. I was also instrumental in the success of the “Hindu community center fund drive” in 2018. Since 2018, I have been serving in the temple operations committee. During 2022 Kumbhabhisekam, I served as chairperson of the command-and-control team. Through this position, I seamlessly fulfilled the devotees’ safety & security, parking, and food preparations. Outside of my temple service, I am serving as a regional vice president in TANA (Telugu Association of North America). Through this role, I am supporting our Indian community for any unforeseen life events in our region through TANA TEAM SQUARE, conducting Telugu classes through TANA Paatasala, and conducting TANA activities in our region and Telugu states in India. I feel it is now my turn to serve the Hindu Temple to uphold the welfare for our devotees and our community.

Greatly appreciate your support and help.
Kishore Yarlagadda

Rama Krishna Daggumati

Namaste, I’m Ramakrishna Daggumati(RK), running for EC member. I have been serving the Hindu Temple for the last 15 years as a volunteer, and also as a dedicated volunteer during the Temple Ayyappa Mandala seasonal poojas from November to January 14 th event (Makara Villakku).

I’m a volunteer of pooja committee, also helped during Maha Kumbabhisekam event. I also volunteered during COVID time in 2020. I also served for a Glorious Charity Foundation St. Louis as a Board Director/board member. This Charity Organization is a Non-profit organization with a mission to serve kids growing up in poverty around the world regardless of religion, region, ethnicity, or gender. Our efforts will direct towards individuals, groups, communities and organizations, who in turn will serve the kids in need, either directly or indirectly. I believe these valuable experiences taught me with ideas and patience to help improve any non-profit organizations.

If elected, I will help the temple within my abilities to make it a great place in St. Louis to worship Hinduism. Additionally, I want to help in streamlining and operating the organization into a more democratic and inclusive manner.

My passion serving the community is the reason why I am asking your vote and support.