National Sikh Campaign
www.sikhcampaign.org
Visalia Sikh Community in California Raises $95,000 for Sikh Media Campaign in America
Visalia, September 13, 2016: 300 Sikh men, women and youth from all over Visalia, California gathered to support National Sikh Campaign's plan to educate Americans about the Sikhs and Sikhism. They raised $ 95,000, a substantial amount, from a tiny Sikh population in the Visalia. Sikhs from the nearby small towns of Delano, Porterville, porterville, Exeter, Lindsay, Woodlake and Kingsburg also joined to support this nationwide effort. National Sikh Campaign has now over $600,000 total cash in hand from several fundraising events in the few months nationwide.
Sikhs have faced several incidents of violence and hate in the recent months in America following the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino in Los Angeles and due to a widespread ignorance about the Sikh tradition in America. and Sikh turban and beard is confused with Taliban and Isis by common Americans who have no clue according to a recent nationwide study conducted by Hart Research Associates.
President Obama’s media team, AKPD, has been hired by the National Sikh Campaign to develop ads on Sikhs which will be run on TV media and social media. This media strategy has been designed by Hillary Clinton’s former Chief Strategist, Geoff Garin, head of the Hart Research Associates. NSC plans to run these ads on National and local TV channels and on social media. In the next few weeks, it is also launching a high level website on Sikhs.
Dr. Sarjit Singh Malhi, Dr. Rajwant Singh and Amritpal Singh;
Pritpal Singh from Salt Lake City and Inderpal Singh from Seattle standing
Dr. Rajwant Singh, Co-founder and senior Advisor of NSC, stated, "Visalia Sikhs have helped NSC reach midway to its goal of raising 1.3 million to fund the entire media campaign for Sikhs in America. A substantial majority of the U.S. Sikhs in a poll have expressed their support for this media campaign and this enthusiasm is now evident from the response we are getting in each US city with Sikh population. This is perhaps the first time Sikhs are reaching out to fellow Americans in a strategic and targeted manner to clear the misconceptions and misperceptions about the Sikh identity and the Sikh faith."
Ishmeet Narula singing at the event and Raginder 'Violinder' enthralled that audience with violin numbers
Ishmeet Narula, a female Sikh singer from San Francisco, opened the event with a heart warming song on the Tenth Sikh Guru and later entertained the audience with her punjabi numbers. Raginder 'Violinder' enthralled the audience with his violin numbers and had people dance with his fast tunes. The event was organized and coordinated by Amritpal Singh and Dr. Sarjit Singh Malhi. Sikhs in Visalia are mostly farmers and are small business owners.
Amritpal Singh said "We are very pleased with the response from the Visalia Sikh community even though we are such a small community. We feel that this initiative is of utmost importance for your youngsters."
Dr. Sarjit Singh Malhi, a local Sikh community leader, welcomed the audience and exhorted the attendees to become part of the campaign by donating. He said, It is imperative that we support and be part of this effort to educate Americans about the Sikh identity. The Sikh community in America has never done anything like this and it is time that we do it now."
This year the National Sikh Campaign has had successful fund raisers in San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver and is planning to run the ad campaign by early 2017.
Inderpal Singh, NSC board member from Seattle, said, “All the funds being collected are monitored by professional CPA firms and we are making sure that it in only to be used for the campaign purpose.” Other NSC team members who joined the event were Prithpal Singh from Salt Lake City.
National Sikh Campaign is planning similar fund raisers in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, Fresno, Long Island, New York, Yuba City and many other cities across the nation.
Dr. Sharanjit Singh Purewal, President of the Sikh Council of Central California speaking at the event
Gagan Kaur was the MC of the event
