BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), the caretakers of six traditional stone mandirs in North America, has been lighting these landmarks blue as a gesture of gratitude to the first responders of COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting on March 29, 2020, the temples located in the greater metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Toronto as well as Robbinsville, New Jersey lit blue to appreciate the brave individuals – doctors, nurses, paramedics, public safety officers and others – who risk their lives on a daily basis to ensure the well-being of the public at large.
Nilkanth Patel, a director of the organization’s humanitarian arm BAPS Charities, said, “BAPS and BAPS Charities host events which require the collaboration with local agencies and officials – many of whom we have gotten to know well on a personal level. During these times when our friends and brethren are risking their lives to literally save our families, we as an organization want them to know that we salute them.”
BAPS Charities has donated over 18,000 N95 respiratory masks during the critical early days of the pandemic to some of the hardest hit hospital systems in New York, New Jersey, and Canada.
Since early March, BAPS has shut down all of its mandirs and stopped all in-person activities in response to COVID-19. The organization operates over 100 mandirs throughout North America and over 3,300 globally.
