Letter from the Chairperson
Dear friends,
I hope you have had a fruitful summer.
There is a buzz in the Iranian-American community as everyone seems to be getting more active and more collaborative. With each passing day, I can see our community’s social consciousness rise and the feeling of co-responsibility to the “group” strengthen. Our friends at PAAIA and IAHFSC/Farhang are working hard to help move our community forward and assert a more positive image of us all.
Here at PARSA CF, our list of volunteers is growing rapidly as are the number and quality of grant applications. We are in the process of finalizing the Mehregan grant cycle with several first-time grantees putting forward many exciting and worthy efforts. In June, we held our fourth retreat/philanthropy forum to exchange ideas and set priorities for PARSA CF in the years to come. We are working feverishly on the organization’s Persian Garden Gala to take place on November 15 in San Francisco where we are delighted to present Paul Merage with PARSA’s Philanthropist of the Year Award and Mrs. Ghandehari Bahadorzadeh with PARSA’s Volunteerismf and Action Award.
We welcomed Alaleh Azarkhish, Majid Ghafghaichi, Aligholi Hedayat, Afshin Molavi and Francis Najafi into PARSA CF’s Board of Directors in August. Francis Najafi also joined our Board of Trustees, Meadowood Social Venture Fund, as a Partner. Other Partners are Anousheh Ansari, Bita Daryabari, Salar Kamangar, Omid Kordestani, Hamid Moghadam, Dr. Camran Nezhat and yours truly. The Founding Partners are making a significant commitment to broader community participation and grass roots organizing via a multi-million dollar, multi-year matching fund. Together, we are continuing our participation and support of PARSA Community Foundation.
This season’s newsletter is dedicated to the good work of our fellow travelers in Sacramento. As we observed in San Diego in our last newsletter, there is strong cohesion amongst diverse individuals and groups to support common causes. What is striking is that in Sacramento, volunteers and philanthropists have channeled their time and funds for educational and cultural programs through existing, mainstream institutions such as UC Davis, Sacramento State University and Sacramento Public Library. I hope you find these articles inspiring and more reason to be proud.
Sincerely,
Noosheen Hashemi
Chairman