Miami (Florida): Odia families from around the world, including US, Canada, India and Bahamas, observed the 48th Annual Convention of Odisha Society of America (OSA) on board a cruise ship in Bahamas Islands from June 30th to July 3rd, 2017 and celebrated Odia culture and heritage.
Kalpana Dash, Dr. Joy Gopal Mohanty and Dr. SitaKantha Dash joined as Chief Guest and addressed the audience speaking about the importance of the Odia community reaching out to the world to promote and spread Odia culture in the larger Indian community and even outside the Indian community.
On this occasion, OSA recognized a few of its pioneering members with Annual OSA Awards; Dr Sukant Mohapatra, Dr. Basant Mohapatra, Ms. Jessika Baral and Mr. Anshuman Mishra were recognized with OSA’s Distinguished Odia Award, Arun Das Memorial Kalashree Award, Subrina Biswal Award for Academic Excellence and Youth Volunteer Award, respectively.
OSA’s annual magazine Urmi was released during the inauguration ceremony in the presence of its editors Dr. Bigyani Das, Mr. Prasanta Bhuyan and Dr. Joy Gopal Mohanty.
OSA President Sushant Satpathy presided over the meeting, OSA Vice-President Sulochana Patnaik welcomed everyone to 48th OSA Convention, OSA Secretary Saradakanta Panda provided an overview of activities planned and OSA Treasurer Siddharth Behera proposed the vote of thanks.