13-hour show for eye donation awareness

CHENNAI: Two hundred children performed a 13-hour non-stop music concert to create awareness on eye donation. It was also an attempt made for Guinness World Records. The performance by children, aged 5 to 16, included dance and singing. The children also played musical instruments. The event was inaugurated by musician Kudanthai A Saravanan. The programme started with a Bharatanatyam performance and ended with eye-donation theme song. The closing ceremony was graced with the presence of several playback singers.Determined children put up a resplendent show which comprised folk, classical, Carnatic, western, rock, jazz and light music. Little fingers played drums, keyboards and tabla as the audience sat awestruck at their performance. Music lovers, social workers, parents and students were amazed and thoroughly enjoyed the 13 hours long performance. “It is a great experience for me, as I am doing dual jobs at the same time. One is for creating awareness on eye donation and another is attempting for a world record,” said a proud young singer, Aniroodh.Shree Music Academy organised this event at Thirumullaivoyal to encourage kids to be successful in their musical careers. The academy joined hands with the Agarwal Eye Hospital to collect the details of 10,000 willing eye donors. There were eye donation forms kept at the entrance of the auditorium and many spectators voluntarily came forward to fill it up. All the forms were handed over to the eye hospital authorities by director of the music academy, BG Sriram Prabhu.         “Instead of the normal annual day function we used to celebrate, this year our academy had planned an event with a social message in it. Hence, this non-stop music concert to create awareness on eye donation as well as an effort to set Guinness World Record. Through this event, we were able to collect 10,000 eye donation forms and gave them to Agarwal Eye Hospital,” said Sriram.