India Community Center  ICC Opens new 40,000 sq ft. facility in Milpitas, SF BAy area
 Milpitas, Calif.: 

Ramesh Mathur , a Senior citizen of San jose was all smiles on Sunday September 9^th at the formal inauguration of The India Community Center (ICC) at 525-535 Los Coaches Drive in Milpitas. Mathur his wife Kitty and many others present at the opening ribbon cutting ceremony, saw a culmination of their dreams of nearly two decades to have a full fledged community center take shape in the heart of Silicon Valley, with a reported budgeted investment of nearly $14 million.

<>The new 40,000 sq. ft. facility is adjacent to the one ICC operated for couple of years on lease and is interesting in its departure from the design of the earlier adjacent community center. 

The new center has nearly a third of its space (13,000 sq ft) dedicated to a state-of-art fitness and health club, and a 8,000 sq ft auditorium, recognizing the need for a medium-large auditorium to  accommodate the burgeoning Indian-American community needs for  reception, parties and events. The banquet hall with a performance stage is designed to accommodate 800 people.  Other offerings include three classrooms and dance studios as well as a lobby area which is used by the likes of ICC Karaoke club, the Senior citizen program etc.

The fitness center is subleased to a professional group Club One Fitness, while ICC’s Ms. Sunita Motwani Prabhu helps oversee it as a General Manager. This profit center is to fulfill some of the health oriented issues in the community, while also maintaining a steady income to sustain the community center and its other programs.

<>At the formal ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday, September 9^th, about 200 community members, donors, politicians and supporters were present, representing all segments of the community and many with a close connection to the origins and growth of the India Community Center since its conception in1989, with the name as Indo-american community service Center. 

Heralding the launch of a much needed community center in the Sf Bay area, current ICC President Naren Bakshi, Chair of Board of Trustees Talat Hasan and Trustee Kamil Hasan as well as Executive director Chitra Vivek, reiterated the need for inclusiveness of all in the Indian-American community.  

<>Ms. Talat Hasan set the pace in talking about the need for the whole community to be unified and rally behind a noble cause like the ICC. Talat also said that the goals of ICC were to serve members and celebrate "Indian-ness and closeness of family," and also provide critical services for the underprivileged.   

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Kanwal Rekhi spoke about being happy with the fruition of the vision shared by many in the community and remarked that he was happy with an overall first class effort, which included clean bathrooms.

<>Kamil Hasan reemphasized the secular nature of the center and its all inclusiveness mission, while President Naren Bakshi took the further step of remembering how ICC came into existence with help of several volunteers for nearly two decades with the help of the Indo-American Community Service Center (ICSC) and also many volunteers saying, "We want to be a uniting force for the community, this is just our headquarters - we are really a Bay Area organization." He also referred to partnership with about 65 organization in and around the SF Bay area. 

Echoing this sentiment, co-founder ICC Anil Godhwani said , "It was never about the dreams of a few people, it was about the dreams of a number of people, and without any one of them, this facility would not have been possible at all." Anil and his brother Gautam Godhwani made special mention of many on whose back this center was built and also singled out his family for their support.

<>Several public officials made their presence at the opening like Congressman Mike Honda (Dist. 15), Mayor of Milpitas Jose Esteves, Sunnyvale Mayor Otto Lee, Cupertino Mayor Kris Wang and Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman and Fremont Council member Anu Natarajan.

Milpitas Mayor Esteves, who has been very helpful and instrumental in supporting ICC and getting the center to Milpitas according to ICC President Naren Bakshi,  congratulated ICC Board and community members “for an invaluable contribution to all of Milpitas," and presented an official proclamation to commemorate the occasion.
<>With the induction of physician Dr. Anmol Mahal, a new free medical clinic, open to the community-at-large is to be offered, which promises to be a shining example in community outreach and service.  This 12,000 sq ft add on facility will provide free primary care to community members and is slated to be open twice a week and is serviced entirely by volunteer medical professionals. One shot in the arm for the new medical service was when Congress member (D CA), 15^th dist, announced an appropriations grant of $300,000, subject to approval by President Geoge Bush Jr.

ICC trustee Kumar Malavalli, for whom the new banquet facility is named said, "One thing that I recognize as unique is this, ICC is agnostic to people's religious beliefs and politics, all people can come here and engage in community and humanitarian activities."
 ICC Executive Director Chitra Vivek thanked longtime supporters of the venture. She noted that the new center was the realization of plans laid out 15 years ago, by the leaders of the Indo-American Community Service Center (ICSC), the forerunner to ICC, saying, "Everyone who was involved gave something - time, money, skills, ideas, connections - and that something is what made this beautiful facility and all of our programs and services possible. But we need the continued support of the community, via donor dollars and center memberships, to be able to continue our good work here."

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, accompanied to live Dhol music, many trustees and members of the community joined in for a quick Bhangra jig, as others took tours of the Open House at ICC.  A buffet lunch catered by Heritage of India followed with demonstration table tennis matches featuring 11 year old Ariel Hsing, the reigning US under-16 girls champion. Also on hand were the smartly uniformed members of ICC Table tennis club, several of whom had recently garnered medals at the recent US Junior Olympics in Knoxville, Tennessee.

ICC is  a non-profit, non-political, non-religious organization funded by private contributions, membership dues, fees and grants and run by a staff of 80- both full time and part times, with  more than 200 volunteers, and is reported to have 3,000 members according to ICC Board Secretary Anil Godhwani, although most recent figures are yet to be reported.