Contact Vincent Bruno
vincent.bruno.1229@gmail.com
On Friday Sept 28th I met with the NYC Mayor's Community Affairs office to discuss the ongoing "Hindu Holidays Campaign" which seeks to institute Diwali and Holi as public school holidays in NYC which is home to nearly .5 million Hindus. The office has suggested a two and a half year plan which would hopefully result in either Mayor De Blasio instituting Hindu holidays in the school calendar before he leaves office, or making Hindu holidays an election issue for the next mayoral race.
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Our Diwali Flier On Social Media
The Plan:
- Leadership: the campaign needs defined and regular leadership who will be the main lead for the project. That is me, Vincent Bruno.
- Targeting Neighborhoods: the campaign needs to target the elected officials in neighborhoods in NYC where Hindus make up a large percentage of the voting population, such as Richmond Hill, Murry Hill, Jackson Heights and Flushing.
- Coalition Building: we need to get as many Hindu and interfaith organizations as possible to sign onto our coalition and establish a regular meeting for the project
- Campaign Materials: the campaign needs to produce a website, brochures, emails, pins and other campaign materials to be distributed to local officials, schools and the community.
- Statistics: the campaign needs to set up a survey which can be filled out by Hindu community members detailing how many Hindus celebrate Diwali/Holi and are requesting the day off.
- City/State Solution: the campaign needs to work with both NYC and NY State on this issue. We need Albany to extend the school year by two days to fit the Holi/Diwali holidays into the school calendar and the NYC Department of Education must also promote the initiative
- Support of the Elected: We need to contact city and state senators, assembly persons and those on city council to gain their support for the campaign.
Currently the following organizations are supporting the campaign, please contact me to add your organization's name:
Federation of Hindu Mandirs, Hindu Learning Foundation, Indian American Intellectuals Forum, Hindu Students Association International, Justice For Hindus, Bangladeshi Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council; VidyaDham Panchatatva Gitapith; Vedic American Foundation Inc.; Jamaica Hindu Community, The American India Public Affairs Committee, American Hindu Coalition
The Hindu Holidays Campaign will now begin to put the Mayor's office's plan into effect. We must create emailers which can be sent to district officials and school boards as well as Albany and the Department of Education. We must contact other religious leaders and organizations to support us in this project, and we must mobilize the Hindu community to provide the data needed to show we are needing of these school holidays. Individual Hindus and organizations who would like to support the campaign please contact me and please make me aware of any progress you have made on this issue under your own auspices. Let's work on this 2.5 year plan and get Diwali/Holi into our public schools.
WHAT WE'VE DONE SO FAR
NYC Hindus Get Quarterly Meeting With Mayor's Office
17 Aug 2017 & 25 Aug 2017- NYC Hindus had a second and 3rd meeting with the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit, assisted by Mr. Marco A. Carrion, Nick Gulotta and a city education official and were able to establish a quarterly meeting with the office to discuss Hindu affairs in NYC. - SEE MORE
NYC Hindus Outside White House
11 Dec 2016 - Close to 100 NYC Hindus gathered outside the White House to request that the federal administration take measures to further include the American Hindu presence in school and civic activities, such as consulting the community on Diwali and Holi education. - SEE MORE
NYC Hindus At Comptroller's Diwali Party
2 Nov 2016 - NYC Hindus bring the Hindu Holidays Campaign to Comptroller Scott Stringer’s Diwali party at City Hall. We spoke with both the Comptroller and Assembly woman Neeta Jain on further engaging the NYC Hindu community on such issues as facilitating awareness on Hindu holidays with city law makers. - SEE MORE
NYC Hindus At Mayor's Diwali Party
October 2016 - NYC Hindu Coalition members attended the Mayor's first annual Diwali party at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan. We distributed information cards to the public and city administrators on the subjects of Diwali and Holi. - SEE MORE
NYC Hindus At Hindu Unity Day
Sunday 08/30/15 (Queens, New York) Hindu Unity Day was put on by the Indian American Intellectuals Forum (IAIF). IAIF is one of the member groups of the NYC Hindu Coaltion. At the event a table was set up for the Hindu Holidays Campaign and hundreds of signatures were collected to request more city recognition of Hindu holidays and better education for schools and administrators on the Hindu religion. - SEE MORE
NYC Hindus 1st Meeting With Mayor's Office
Friday, 04/24/15 - A delegation of different Hindu Organizations met with the NYC Mayor's Office Community Affairs Unit Mr. Marco A. Carrion. Mr. Carrion was assisted by Ms. Halen Ho, Director of the Queens Community Affairs Unit. The delegation handed over a few documents supporting more acknowledgement of Hindu Holidays in NYC schools
NYC Hindus Demonstrate Outside City Hall
Friday, 04/10/15 - More than two dozen Hindu organizations and nearly 200 Hindus demonstrated outside City Hall for better inclusion of Hindu holiday education in NYC public schools. The event made it to NY1 News and was covered by the Times of Guyana. - SEE MORE
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