General
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gujarati_people
Samaj
BYLAWS committee approved-02102009
History
2006 - Present
1972 - 2006
Background:
In the early seventies, between 1972 and 1977, very few Gujarati families were in Tallahassee, namely Harshad Desai, Kanubhai Patel, Pravinbhai Parekh, and Hiralal Khatri.
We used to celebrate Navratri and other religious functions in an individual's home or some common places. The seed of Gujarati Samaj was planted by the few Gujarati families of Tallahassee at Mr. Bhupedra Vora’s apartment to celebrate Janmashtami in 1977.
Jashbhai Patel, Kanubhai Patel, Dr. Dharnidhar Parikh, Mahesh Patel, and Harshad Desai were part of the initial group. They decided to meet regularly once a week to read Hindu sacred books. A Gujarati Samaj account was opened to deposit money collected at those meetings at the Florida DOT credit union. At the end of the year, all money collected was donated to some religious purpose.
Few more families decided to call Tallahassee home, noteworthy are Vanmalibhai Patel, Narottambhai misty, Ramesh Amin, and Ramanbhai Patel, Ballubhai Patel (Perry), Narnjibhai Patel mostly motel owners. Thursday bhajans replaced reading books and became the trademark of Tallahassee Gujarati community.
Surrounding Gujarati families from Perry, Thomasville, Albany, Panama city, Dothan also joined in some of the programs specially Navratri. We used to rent the church hall, FSU facilities, or school cafeteria. Due to the mischievous nature of our kids, including damaging the properties, it became harder and harder to reserve the place every year.
Krishna Shankar Shastriji inspired the group during Bhagwat Saptah in 1980 to build a multi-purpose facility/temple to expose the younger generation (children) to our culture, religion, and to cater to the needs of our senior community. We received a few checks but were not sufficient, so returned them.
During his next visit, we had more support, and Shastriji donated $2000 and became the first donor. We held a meeting of all families from Tallahassee, Perry, Apalachicola, Thomasville, and Albany at Unitarian Church. Each family wrote down the name of the persons who would volunteer towards completing the goal of building the cultural center. The following 5 trustees were selected: Harshad Desai, Chunibhai Parbhu, Naranjibhai Patel, Jashbhai Patel, Manubhai Padalia.
It was also agreed that no trustee will serve more than 5 years. Jashbhai Patel was replaced by Mukesh Patel to represent the interest of the store owners. The major duties for the trustees were to raise funds, acquire land, obtain a building permit, complete construction.
Fund Raising Activities:
A group of trustees visited every community member’s household or workplace and solicited donations to build the center. Most of them pledged without any force, and any amount was accepted. During weekends we traveled to the south, north, east, and west of Tallahassee.
Any amount of donation over $10 was accepted with grace and provided the receipt. The donations were received from Valdosta, Lake City, Gainesville, Ocala, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Sebring, Tampa, Albany, Dothan, Thomasville, Panama City, and others. Any donor who donated more than $ 500 was considered a FOUNDING MEMBER of the Samaj.
Fifty-six donors were founding members of the Gujarati Samaj of Greater Tallahassee at the time of Incorporation. The majority of the founding members were from Tallahassee, Tampa, & Perry.
Filing of not for Profit Corporation:
Gujarati Samaj of Greater Tallahassee, not for profit origination application was filed with the State Department on Dec.19, 1988.
Five trustees registered the organization and the office address was the residence address of Harshad Desai 1833 Vineyard way, Tallahassee.
Acquisition of land for the Center:
One of the founding members Pradeep Raval had bought 7-acre land near the intersection of Apalachee Parkway and Chaires Cross. He offered 2 acres of the land at the cost of $10,000. The agreement was done on 01/01/1989 with the first right of refusal to purchase the remaining 5 acres.
The warranty deed for the land was filed on July 13, 1989. Mr. Raval moved to Gainesville and offered the remaining land to Samaj. The remaining 5-acre land was acquired by the gracious gift of Dr. Dinesh Patel of Salt Lake City, Utah and other Gujarati store owners who moved to Tallahassee after 1990.
More founding members were added to the original members of 1989.
Construction of the Hindu Temple of Tallahassee:
After forming of the Gujarati Samaj of Greater Tallahassee and acquiring the land, the permit for the construction of the Cultural Center process started. Dr. Nayak and Harshad Desai prepared the construction plan and submitted it to Leon County for a construction permit.
They both met the permit engineer and found out that to build according to plan, we may be required to have a paved parking lot, a Greece trap, and other requirements which would put construction costs out of reach.
An employee of the county suggested that if we request a permit for the church most the costly items could be waived. Hence the building permit was obtained as a Hindu Temple. The volunteers under the guidance of Chunibhai and others, start clearing the grounds for the groundbreaking.
The first Holi celebration was held on the cleared site. And an auspicious day, we had a groundbreaking. Chunibhai took responsibilities of buying the material and Harshadbhai was responsible for engineering and construction. It was very satisfying to finally get the Temple Certificate of Occupancy.