March 2016 – Newsletter
Written by: Rhea Dash, & Nisha Charagulla Volunteers & Staff Writers
Hi all,
Announcements:
- Empower & Excel turned one year old! To celebrate the occasion, E&E is holding its 1st anniversary and volunteer recognition event on April 24 at Alum Rock Library’s community room. We are grateful that Santa Clara County’s 3rd District Supervisor Dave Cortese and PriyaLiving Community director Mahesh Nihalani will join us to honor our volunteers for their selfless service to the community.
- Starting April 1st, all volunteer are responsible for recording their service hours on the President’s Volunteer Service Awards (PVSA) site. Here is the link for registration http://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/volunteerand following are the instructions:
- Go to the link and set up your profile in the system.
- Begin to track and record your volunteer hours and activities.
- Submit a record of service key (ROS key) to a registered certifying organization, which will verify your hours. For E&E, this is YNM-6286
- All volunteers need to re-submit their waiver form. Please follow the directions as below. Waivers are due by April 8th, 2016.
If you go to www.empowerandexcel.org, there is a Get Involved button on the top. When you click on it, it will open google doc.
- Shoutout to the “Dil Ki Awaaz” team on 1170AM for hosting E&E to know more about us. It was great to have the opportunity to spread the word about our mission, and to meet honored Vishwa Mohan Tiwari. You can hear the full conversation here.
- Book Drive: We are holding a book drive on April 16th at Evergreen Village Square from 10 am to 1 pm. We accepts used and new (Pre-K to 8th grades) reading books (NO magazines & textbooks). Tablets & Laptops (Working condition)
Gardening for La Mesa Verde’s Build Day
Rain or shine, we are committed! On March 5th, our volunteers took part in La Mesa Verde’s Build Day. They got to learn about farming and gardening in the best way possible, by experiencing it firsthand. The project made volunteers think how hard farmers work on a daily basis. They learned how to install a garden bed and connect an irrigation system for a garden bed that will help a family grow their own food for years to come! They all worked very hard, and kudos to them for doing their best without complaining about the dirt and the rain!
Coding Class at San Lorenzo’s library
On March 6th, we had our final session of our latest coding class. Introducing coding concepts can be challenging, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the nuances of code, and we had to use a whiteboard to explain the concepts. However, we had interactive and friendly volunteers and successfully concluded our session as planned. Students learned how to build simple websites and refined their design, logic and problem-solving abilities. Special thanks to Vasantha Jayakumar for stepping up and leading our east wing and thanks to Pallavi Jadhav for supporting us.
Below are videos of our volunteers explaining concepts to eager students.
https://www.facebook.com/Empowerandexcel/videos/556070334575042
https://www.facebook.com/Empowerandexcel/videos/556075517907857
https://www.facebook.com/Empowerandexcel/videos/556072777908131
https://www.facebook.com/Empowerandexcel/videos/556140724568003
https://www.facebook.com/Empowerandexcel/videos/556073464574729
Community gardening at Emma Prusch farm park
On March 10th, our team helped out with community gardening at Emma Prusch farm. They started with an agricultural classroom orientation that briefed them on basic farming principles. We also got a workout in the fresh air and sunshine by gardening, weeding, digging, and planting. We also got to see the ongoing Azteca Mexika New Year celebrations nearby.
Packaging at CityTeam shelter’s kitchen pantry
On March 26th, the E&E team helped sort food items and clean up the pantry at CityTeam shelter’s kitchen. Our little effort to support CityTeam which helps thousands of hungry and homeless people in the San Jose area.
Shipped 2 boxes of collected books to India
As most of you are aware that we are doing books and laptops drive right now. Our little volunteers sorted, stamped and packed collected books. We were able to ship 2 boxes of collected books to India on Mar 26th.
