Sunil Varughese's Letter Requesting Monetary Support For NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!

Hey Everyone,

I'll try to make this brief as possible, but please read.  Some of you may already know this, but Ben and I, along with Reni and Roni and some other friends of ours have been fortunate to be involved in forming a non for profit organization called NOW IT’S YOUR TURN.  We’ve been working hard to form this organization the last couple months, filing the proper paper work with the state of New York and getting the proper 501(c)(3) status for federal income tax purposes, creating a website, raising funds, etc. 

We formed this organization in memory of our dear friend, Abey Sarah Varghese, who passed away from a rare form of cancer last year.  Many of you may remember the prayer requests that were sent out.  It was a viscous form of cancer that took her life very abruptly in literally 3 months.  We found out in July and she was taken to the Lord in October.  She was very near to us and if you knew her or ever met her you would have been inspired because she truly was a good person.  We’ve been thinking of something to do in her memory and we came up with this foundation.  For her 1 year memorial last month we decided to bring to fruition this vision.  For our first event under NOW IT’S YOUR TURN we raised over 3,500 lbs of non-perishable food that was donated to the Westchester Food Bank.  This donation was by far the largest donation the Westchester Food Bank has ever received from any non-corporate organization.  I thank all of you that contributed to making that Food Drive a huge success.

The reason for this e-mail is to let you know we are going public with the organization on November 21, 2009 through a day of service.  The mission of NOW IT’S YOUR TURN is to change the world one good deed at a time through service.  On Saturday, November 21, 2009 we have partnered with various community action organizations throughout Westchester County to volunteer our time from 9:00AM to 1:00PM.  We hope to gather about 200 volunteers for this day.  You can volunteer for various events that day from Habitat for Humanity to spending time with senior citizens to wrapping gifts for under privileged children, etc.  We are hoping that our youth group members will volunteer their time this day.  Maybe we can even make a Building Bridges activity out of it.  After you volunteer you will be invited to gather at St. John’s Evangelist Church Auditorium in White Plains from 2:00PM to 5:00PM for our Launch Event where there will be games, music, food, team building activities, etc.  Along with the fun stuff, we will also be doing a blood drive and a swab with the national bone marrow registry.  At the launch event we will have a short presentation on what the organization is and what we plan to do.  We hope this organization will spark a global movement and will extend far beyond our immediate circles and community, but this is where it starts, with each of us.   Please feel free to forward this along to your peers, co-workers, etc.

I hope you will all take the time to visit our website at http://www.nowitsyourturn.org  Please go to the website and find out more about us.  Please go through the pages of the website because I feel like I am not fully able to make you understand what the organization is all about with just words in an e-mail. 

We are in need of your support, so if you are moved to donate, please please do so.  If you donate via Pay Pal on the website you will immediately get a receipt for tax purposes.  If you don’t feel comfortable donating through the website and would rather give a check you can give to me or Ben in church or you can mail to: Now It’s Your Turn Foundation, 1333A North Avenue, Suite #244, New Rochelle, NY 10804 (checks are payable to: Now It’s Your Turn Foundation).

If you have any questions please e-mail us sunil.varughese@nowitsyourturn.org or johnson.parayil@nowitsyourturn.org

Thanks All!

Sunil Varughese