Sparkle and Spice --- Bollywood in Bellevue

Cathi & Ahktar

Tonight Ken and I attended the Sparkle & Spice- Bollywood In Bellevue Gala co-chaired by Alka Badshah and Sita Vashee who led the "ICE Girls" to produce a beautiful partyto benefit Tateuchi Center.  The other ICE Girls include Manisha Chainani, Gillian Fernandes, Mona Nadkarni and Leena Porwal.  The ICE (Indian Community Eastside) Committee has committed to raising $1 million toward the capital campaign for a naming gift inside the new Tateuchi Center slated to break ground in Fall, 2011 and have raised $700k to date.

The invitations and programs were a gorgeous design, bejeweled on exquisite papers.  The female guests were encouraged to wear "glitter and glamour".  I was so glad that I chose to wear a Luly Yang design that is embellished with lots of sequins and bugle beads.  It seemed to fit in just fine with the incredible jeweled saris and formal Indian attire.  The female Indian guests arrived with bindis (the forehead jewels) attached already, but there were plenty of bindis to go around so soon all the women attending had bedecked themselves with bindis as well.  Thank you Cheryl Engstrom for sharing one of yours with me!  The men also wore long silk, tasseled scarves of varying hues and there were enough to go around so all the men had a scarf, even the Hatchman.


Jeff Doud & The Hatchman



The fantastic-looking food buffets included four separate themed buffets; From India with Love, Monsoon Grilling, Orient Express and Sleepless in Seattle.  Though we loved pretty much everything, the guests at our table were crazy about the fig jam and grilled ciabatta bread. 

We saw lots of people that we knew including Betty Freeman, Jane Hague & Ed Springman, Charles & Delphine Stevens, andof course Alka & Ahktar Badshah.  The Tateuchi Center Executive Team were there including CEO John Haynes and his wife Lori, and Director of Development, Linda Bonomi.

New people we met were a member of the Tateuchi Center ACT II Fundraising Guild, Lisbeth Morrow-Nold who had just the right bangles and bindis, and Jeff Doud and his wife, Sarah.  We also enjoyed seeing the dance group, Pratidhwani perform differnt forms of Indian dances ranging from regional folk dance to classical.

Lizabeth Morrow-Nold

The Hatchman and I left before we heard the total amount raised this evening, but I know it will be impressive!  Congratulations to the entire ICE Committee!