QUEENS, NY (TIP): More than 400 people showed up at New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s Asian American and Pacific Islander event to show grassroots’ support for Indian community leader Harish Thakkar who was only Indian honoree amongst other honorees, being honored for his work in the community and got awarded from New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer at the Asian American and Pacific Islander event.

Over 400 people attended the ceremony which included Flushing Councilman Peter Koo, Flushing District Leader Dr. Neeta Jain, civic leaders, members of the South Asian community and AIA and BAPS members.

The event ceremony opened with the Keynote Speaker New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who congratulated and praised Harish Thakkar for his achievements and helping the community and said he is a strong, thoughtful voice and has been actively engaged in the service of the community and has given more than a decade to the work of community. Harish Thakkar said in his speech that he has passion for the community work and he will work hard for community. He joined the South Asian Community over 12 years ago and has a long history of serving the community both socially and politically.

He has been involved in the service of the Indian Community for many years. He is currently the Vice President of Association of Indians in America, NY Chapter – which conducts the Diwali festival @ South Street Seaport for the tri-state area (NY, NJ & CT) besides all other AIA activities during the year. Harish is involved with AIA since last 12 years. He also helps out with spreading the awareness of Diwali in NY Public Schools and has been hosting the Children’s Diwali celebration at the Queens Public Libraries since last 6 years. Harish has also been the Vice President of Lohana Samaj of tri-state, where he did lot of Indian community projects. Currently, he is working on the project of creating a healthy lifestyle for children to make healthy choices in the school lunches and as they enter their adult lives. There are thousands of children in NYC schools who are vegetarian and are facing this food restriction as they have no vegetarian choice except for the pizza on Fridays. Eating vegetarian food is a healthy choice which is a widely known fact.