Diana, Sophie, Mugdha, Parvathy at Lavasa Women’s Drive 2012

Lavasa Women’s Drive 2012 – a true celebration of Women Power. Over 2000 women drive down to Lavasa for fun, adventure & for raising awareness about cancer.

Bandra Reclamation Ground in Mumbai was buzzing with cheer and excitement last weekend as over 2000 women gathered to participate in the annual ‘Lavasa Women’s Drive 2012’. All participants were out to celebrate the joy of being a woman coupled with their compassion for a social cause. ‘This drive celebrated the spirit of womanhood. There was a lot of excitement in the air as participants prepared to be flagged off by a bevy of celebrities at the starting line.

Women young and old decked up their cars with imaginative themes and messages supporting various causes like cancer prevention, saving a girl child, conserving tiger and many more. Families and friends of the participants turned up in large numbers to support them and cheered each and every car at the flag off.

The cars were flagged off by eminent Bollywood celebrities and personalities like Emraan Hashmi, Mugdha Godse, Sophie Chaudhary, Chunky Pandey, Amar Upadhyay, Pawan Malhotra, Manav Gohil, Parvathy Omanakuttan and Shreya Kishore.

Bhagyashree, Tanvi Azmi, Diana Hayden drove Rosy Cars, first to be flagged off and Tarana Raja and Simran Kaur Mundi drove the cars promoting awareness about cancer prevention. Diana Hayden drove all the way to Lavasa and also judged the talent hunt competition organized for participants where they displayed their talent in front of 2000 plus crowd.

A series of pre-event workshops, cancer detection camps and a pre-drive party were organized this year to reach out to more women who are unable to participate in the drive. These initiatives made women feel empowered and special. Ganesh Hegde and Dabboo Ratnani gave valuable tips to participants on dancing and photography. A free Cervical and Breast Cancer Camp for women was conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital & Jaslok Hospital.

Lavasa Women’s Drive 2012 culminated with women driving down to Lavasa. The participants made it from the hot & sultry Mumbai to the cool picturesque Lavasa following all the rules set by WIAA on the 240 km stretch following the tulip chart provided. The drive was in Time-Distance-Speed format (TDS).

At Lavasa the atmosphere was almost akin to a carnival with a delightfully laid out ‘Chat Street’, activities like tattoo, hair braiding etc. To pamper women, special spa vouchers were made available from Dasvino Town & Country Club, jetski rides from Lakeshore Watersports, a specially created Rudra spa zone and Chambor makeover zone. A host of brands made their day even more special like the Ujjivana counter that makes delightful bags out of recycled plastic waste and discounts on international brands at the Grab the Brand outlet.

Acclaimed actor Emraan Hashmi made a special appearance and addressed the gathering. Meiyang Chang, the winner of Indian Idol enthralled participants.

Anuradha Paraskar, Sr. Vice President – Marketing & Sales, Lavasa Corporation Limited stated, “We are truly overwhelmed with the fact that Lavasa Women’s Drive is slowly becoming an event in the calendar, a date not to be missed in Mumbai and Pune. This year, we are also launching under the aegis of the Lavasa Women’s Drive, the ‘Women in the Driving Seat’ award that will be launched on 4th March. Here, we will not only be awarding the winners of the drive but also 10 exceptional women who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.”

Lavasa Women’s Drive is supported by Women’s Cancer Initiative Tata Memorial Hospital, conducted by Western India Automobile Association. The Lavasa Women’s Drive will end with the final prize distribution to be held on March 4, 2012 at The Intercontinental Lalit, Andheri (East), Mumbai.